Hello, I'm Winter
by Strager
Summary: Something strange is going on at the northern border and Edmund is sent to find out what. He will find his answers, and also something else. SLASH-pairing, Edmund/OC, rated for K  just in case
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Never written Chronicles of Narnia before so inform me please if there is any mistakes in the story. Also I have never written a story in english before so if you find something strange in the text please tell me so I can fix it. And hopefully not do it again :)

1.

Edmund watched the sun rising from the sea while sitting on the beach. He was barefoot and the cool water reached nearly to his toes. His siblings were still asleep at this early in the morning. He had woken up from a nightmare and unable to continue sleeping, decided to go walking in the beach and watch the sunrise. It was early spring and for some reason, he always saw the nightmares of _her_ then. Maybe it was the Christmas that prevented him from seeing the dreams at winter, he didn't know and he would have preferred not to see them at all.

Edmun rose from the ground he had been sitting and started to walk back to the Cair. He was supposed to leave today to north. Peter would be leaving to Lone Islands tomorrow as he had promised and as such unable to see the situation at north himself as he normally would do. Northern areas were his jurisdiction technically and Edmund would have rather left it to him anyway. He didn't know the north very well. He faired much better in forests.

There had been some strange commotion going on, according to the Mice, Squirrels, Birds and Bats, who kept an eye on things for Edmund. What was the strange thing, was that the commotion didn't come from the Ettins, who lived behind the northern border.

It came from humans.

And Edmunds eyes and ears in Narnia didn't know any better than Edmund himself, where the people were coming from. According to every book, scroll and legend in Narnia, behind the Ettin lands shouldn't live humans anymore. Only hags, werewolves and other creatures of the night. One possibility could be, that the humans had come from sea, but how would have they managed to make ashore in the Ettin coastline. He was fairly sure that the giants wouldn't have let them come in peace.

So he needed to go and find out. It did not do to have unknown possible threats running around Narnia doing who knows what. Edmund rolled his eyes. It would probably be useless to hope that they could be just some harmless humans in trouble. Perhaps lost after a shipwreck?

Edmund sighed.

He somehow doubted it.

……….

Edmund walked through the door of the dining room his personal guards, Snow Leopards Therren and Shalang trailing behind him and saw his siblings sitting at the table chatting freely of non important things. He was already dressed in his traveling clothes. He planned leaving as soon as the breakfast was over.

"Morning Ed", Lucy said as he sat next to her. "Did you sleep well?"

Always the caretaker, Edmund thought a bit amused. Lucy was the only one who hadn't believed him when he had claimed that the nightmares had stopped and so the only one who knew, he still had them. He had stopped complaining about them few years ago, not wanting to worry his family. Lucy hadn't liked it, but had promised not to tell Peter or Susan that he still suffered from them.

"Morning, I slept like I normally do", Edmund answered knowing, Lucy would understand his meaning.

"You are leaving already?" Susan asked noticing his clothes.

Edmund nodded. "Right after breakfast. I want to get the job done quickly so I can come back. I really don't like your marshes, Peter."

"_My_ marshes? I thought they were all of us", Peter scoffed.

Edmund inclined his head. "Yes, but you are the one who Aslan gave what is beneath the Northern skies, are you not?" He raised his eyebrow to his brother who was glowering to him.

"Now you are splitting hairs."

Edmund grinned and nodded. "Of course, isn't that my job?"

Peter rolled his eyes. Edmund smiled and finished his breakfast quickly. Then he stood giving Lucy a hug, doing the same with Susan and Peter.

"I'll be off then. Have fun at the Lone Islands Pete."

"Be careful, Edmund. We don't know who those people are", Susan said to him worriedly.

Edmund nodded. "I will. Don't worry. At least for me anyway", he added glancing pointedly at his brother.

"What?!"

Lucy and Susan laughed. "I think he means all the beautiful ladies you are going to meet on your journey."

Peter blinked and started massaging his temples. "Thanks guys. Now I have the headache already", he complained. Edmund snorted and bid his goodbyes. After a few more warnings and brotherly advices, he headed to the stables where Phillip would be waiting with faun Calen and twenty soldiers.

However, the journey to the stables proved to be a long one. Nearly immediately after he had stepped outside the dining room, he was accosted by his head of intelligence department with latest reports from the North and West. After he had gotten rid of the talkative magpie, he had walked perhaps four meters when he bumped into a very concerned aspen Dryad, who needed to know whether she should change the curtains of the hallway to burgundy or aniline. Edmund spent the next five minutes convincing the Dryad that his sisters were better qualified to solve that problem. Therren and Shalang found his problems very amusing.

Edmund sighed in relief when he could continue his journey. Then he almost groaned. The next bypasser was a nobleman from Archenland, not in very high position, with whom he had gotten drunk at one party couple of days ago and ended up sleeping with. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, he was a very nice guy (and quite talented at bedroom), but Edmund really wasn't looking any permanent relationship, no matter how much Susan tried to convince him otherwise, and this nobleman seemed to be one those kind of people who didn't do one night stands. And Edmund _really_ didn't want to go through that conversation right now. He considered a moment letting Therren, who absolutely loved scaring the foreign people, loose at the nobleman. Unfortunately there would probably be unpleasant consequences, so he plastered a polite smile on his face, increased his speed and passed him quickly with a bit overly cheerful greeting.

After turning around a corner, Edmund slowed down a bit. He dreaded what would happen next. He was quite sure that he wasn't going to get to the stables without anymore interruptions.

He was right.

The stables were full of bustling when he finally managed to reach them (after a cookie hunt, solving an argument between two badgers and escaping a punch of giggling ladies who obviously failed to notice his quite obvious attraction to the more masculine gender). Busy animals, fauns and centaurs hurried in and out of the building, all with some sort of task. Edmund walked to Phillip, who was waiting at the door of the stable. The great cats followed and sat next to the Horse.

"Hello friend. Is everything ready?" Edmund said to the Horse.

Phillip nodded. "Yes, Sire. Captain Calen is waiting for your order."

"Alright", Edmund muttered as he hopped to the back of the Horse. "May as well get this over with. Captain! Move out!"

The King, captain and the twenty soldiers left trotting through the gate of Cair Paravel while Queen Lucy watched high from the window of the dining room the groups departure. _May Aslan watch over you brother._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Narnia and anything in it does not belong to me. Only the things I added there.

A/N: Apparently I forgot the disclaimer from the previous chapter, as it is, same goes for the first chapter and any that follow in case I fail to put it there again in the future (which is very much possible).

2.

Day was sunny and warm except for the biting wind who tried to freeze them every now and then with the exception of Therren and Shalang who were used to cold weather. Edmund glowered at the sky. Without that wind, their journey would be quite pleasant. They had travelled two days, first day being as nice as this one and second day it rained more than Edmund could believe possible. After today they still had another two days journey before they would reach the area, where the sightings had occurred. According to a Sparrow named Terence the unknown humans were still there.

What on earth were those people doing there? And the way they acted as if nobody could notice them. Surely they didn't think that Narnia was uninhabited? Or then they knew, but just didn't care. But that would be unwise too since most of the world was aware of Narnia's new rulers by know and of their objective of keeping their lands safe from all unfriendly intruders. The defeating of the Witches army's leftovers, the war with the Giants and the many skirmishes with pirates at sea should be quite convincing warning of their seriousness.

Edmund shook his head. He would find out eventually. No use worrying about it now when he couldn't do anything about it. Now he should worry about where to make camp. Sun would be starting to set soon.

They made the camp in a sheltered little forest. The dryads of the forest had decided to throw a party in honor to the King and after a decent amount of time, Edmund made his excuses and retreated to his tent to rest for the following day. Or to rest as well as he could at this time of the year.

As he had expected, his dreams were full of nightmares. The ones where The Witch tortured him, the one where She turned Mr. Tumnus to stone over and over again even though he hadn't been present when it had happened. That dream where he finally realized completely what he had actually done. And myriad of other dreams, some more like memories, some results of his own subconsciousness. And then there was the one he hated and feared the most. The one where he woke trembling and gasping for breath in a verge of tears.

It was strange really, the dream. There wasn't exactly anything terribly scary in it. In the dream he was always sitting in his sell, cold, hungry and anxious. He sat facing the wall so that the door of the sell was on his left side. His eyes were watching one particular spot in the wall, staring at it as if anything else didn't exist.

Except The Witch.

He could feel Her looking at him, standing outside the sell, watching, staring, never leaving him alone. She would do that for hours. Until She would finally move, taking the keys and opening the door. Then she would come inside to stand right next to him. And continue looking until putting Her hand at top of his head.

Then he would wake up. It never went past that point.

And a small part of him hoped it never would.

He saw that dream also while trying to sleep after the party. Thankfully though, he didn't see it again. Next morning a very irate King rose from his bed and stomped through the camp to get something, anything that would wake him up properly while Shalang followed him from a safe distance.

After three cup of tea he started to feel more composed and awake. He reached for a few toasts and managed to eat two of them. He had never been able to eat very much in the mornings. When he had finished, captain Calen approached him.

"We are ready to continue, Sire."

"Good. Let's get going then", Edmund answered and walked to Phillip with captain and the cats at his side. He hopped up to Phillips back and the scouting party continued its journey.

Nothing interesting happened during the day, except a few enlightening reports from North and Edmund found himself slipping into a state of dormancy, where he saw and heard everything around him but where nothing stayed in his mind. He sat on the back of Phillip, watched bypassing landscapes without seeing anything and let his mind wander. From important matters of state to equally important matters of family and from there into less important things of what would be for dinner at Cair or how much there would be water on his rain gauge until he wasn't exactly thinking anything anymore.

That night they made camp at the foot of a cliff, which stretched above the camp forming a kind of cave. They slept through the night peacefully, not counting Edmund of course, and woke up early next morning. After Edmund had been managed to get up, wake and eat a little, the party continued its way into another dull uneventful day. Although the day was a bit more pleasant today thanks to the biting wind, which had decided to keep a day off.

Edmund sighed. Tomorrow they would be at the Northern border where the sightings had all been. From the reports he had been given during the journey, he had decided to head a few miles east than the last sighting. Apparently these people were moving towards the coast of Narnia and were coming from West instead of where he had originally thought they were coming. If he had calculated correctly, they would reach their destination slightly earlier than these unknown people.

This thing was really starting to bug him. According to the information, these people weren't doing anything threatening but were armed to the teeth. They weren't making contact with anyone, they preferred open ground and stayed near the Ettin border, but never crossed over. They didn't seem interested in Narnia at all.

Yes, this was really starting to bug him.

……..

Edmund was sitting in a tent in front of a small table studying a map with the Sparrow Terence. Terence was at the moment showing Edmund where the intruders had made camp for the night. Therren and Shalang had stationed themselves outside the tent on guarding duty and captain Calen was standing next to him eyes on the map.

The scouting party had come to the area a few hours earlier and made their camp in a small clearing surrounded by large rocks and bushes in a plain with bright green hills. The place was quite sheltered and more importantly, hidden from the travelers they had been expecting.

The travelers were settling in place similar to their with the exception of rocks. Their camp was only surrounded by low hills and thick bushes. The animals who had followed their journey hadn't dared to go too close, so they knew only now that the group consisted of about thirty people, all male. And while all of them were heavily armed, not all of them seemed to be warriors. They seemed more like settlers. But where were they headed?

"Perhaps we should send our people down there to make contact with them. Just in case they aren't hostile", Edmund said. He didn't want to fight for nothing.

"I think it would be a good idea too, Sire. From what Terence has told us I'm inclined to believe that also", the captain answered.

Edmund nodded. Now who should they send? Perhaps the two centaurs in their group, they would suitably impressive. And someone else still. Edmunds eyes shifted towards the captain.

"Captain, would you like to go and talk to them? I believe you would be suitably high in rank so that they will believe in our seriousness."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I would be delighted", the captain answered. He, too was bothered by these travelers.

"Excellent. Take Fior and Glenned with you", Edmund ordered referring to the two centaurs he had thought about just minutes ago. Captain Calen nodded.

"And I would also like to situate our troops hidden around you in case something goes wrong", Edmung continued. "Few hours should be enough, don't you think? We get our people in place and our quests have time to settle in properly before we go to disturb them."

"Yes, Your Majesty. This will work nicely", the faun said smiling. "If you will, Sire, I shall go and make the arrangements."

Edmund nodded his consent and the faun left swiftly to execute their plans. Edmund sat more comfortably in his chair and started nibbling his already cold dinner while discussing with Terence about the travelers.

After a couple of hours Edmund was dressed in his lighter armor, which he used in a trips like this, had managed to take a short nap and studied the map so thoroughly he felt like he knew the environment almost as well as his own woods.

The fabric of the tent rustled as Shalang entered.

"They are ready to proceed, Sire", he said in a low soft voice.

Edmund nodded and rose from his chair to follow the Snow Leopard outside. He stopped in front of the tent for a moment.

"Let's hope everything goes alright", he said and headed towards the edge of their camp where Phillip was waiting for him. The Leopards followed him silently as shadows.

"We are sure…"Therren said.

"…it will, Sire", Shalang finished. Edmund chuckled silently. Ever since he had stumbled on to them in trouble, eight years ago in the Shuddering Woods and helped their family to survive through the winter, the twin brothers had not been willing to part his side. He had found out quickly that the Cats had a habit of ending each other's sentences.

At first it had been unbelievably infuriating, but in time he had gotten used to it and he had found it quite amusing eventually. Not including those who worked closely with Edmud, everyone else found the Cats habit still infuriating even though they had lived eight years in the castle.

They had just reached Phillip, when Terence flew past them and landed on the back of Phillip.

"Your Highness, Your Highness!" the Sparrow chirped quickly. "Cone and Lichen found someone wandering at the perimeter of our camp."

"Someone?" Edmund asked. That usually meant humans. If it had been someone of the Talking Animals or other Creature Terence would have said so.

"Yes, a human man. Seems a bit strange one if you ask me", Terence told them.

Edmund cursed silently in his mind. What a perfect timing. He knew he should just tell them to put the man in safe keeping until their task at the travelers camp was over, but something nagged in the back of his mind that this was somehow important. He had no idea why it would be important, it just wouldn't stop nagging.

Edmund sighed and looked Phillip. "You think they can manage without me?"

"They are doing their job, Sire. They know what to do", Phillip assured him.

Edmund nodded. "Alright. Tell the guards to bring him into my tent", he said to Terence who nodded and flew in a flash to the guards.

"I suppose we are not going anywhere. Phillip, would be kind enough to tell captain Calen that I'm unable to participate this time", Edmund asked from his friend who nodded his large head.

"Of course."

The Horse turned and trotted to find the faun captain while Edmund and the Cats returned to his tent. Edmund sat back to his chair and Therren lay comfortably before the table, where he could see the entrance clearly, while his brother situated himself in front of the tent outside.

After a while Edmund heard the muffled footsteps of the Bear Linchen and the Fox Cone. He didn't hear any other steps, he noticed. Rustling of the fabric followed the Bear as he stepped inside and the tent seemed suddenly much smaller than it had few moments ago. Behind him came inside the stranger and last the Fox.

Edmund stared at the strange man. He also looked a bit strange. For a human anyway. He was about the same height as Edmund but seemed a bit leaner than he. He had short light grey hair that reached his shoulders.

He was dressed in a dark green coat made of leather that reached his thighs, a grey woolen shirt, in a green shoes of which another covered his leg below the knee and the other above the knee. Trousers were dark purple and on top of it all was a green cloak with a rucksack and quiver and bow.

Strangest thing about him though, were his eyes. They were silver, and he meant like liquid silver. He didn't think that any normal human would ever be born with eyes like that.

The man smiled kindly and stepped forward reaching out with his hand.

"Hello, I'm Winter."


	3. Chapter 3

3

"Hello, I'm Winter."

Edmund flinched inwardly. No matter what he did or how he tried, winter always brought back unpleasant memories. Even when it was said as a name only. The man, Winter, Edmund forced himself to think about him, tilted his head curiously as if he had noticed Edmunds nonexistent flinch. But that was impossible, he had nine years of experience in hiding his emotions and reactions from other people.

"Winter…?" Edmund trailed off waiting the mans, _Winters_, last name or something like it.

"Just Winter", was the cheerful response. His voice was a bit peculiar too, a little too high to be a man's voice but a little too low to be a woman's voice either. He was looking around him appearing to be very interested about everything he saw. His eyes trailed over the tent, the few furniture there was, over the Talking Animals stopping at Therren for a while until he continued to Edmund. It made Edmund uncomfortable.

"And you?" Winter asked while watching him intently, his hand still reached towards him. Edmund realized he had been impolite. He rose from his chair and took Winters hand. He hadn't shaken hands in years, he barely remembered that it had been a custom back at Spare Oom.

"I am King Edmund the Just, one of the four Sovereigns of Narnia", Edmund introduced himself. He hadn't done that either in for a while. Nowadays someone else always introduced him and his siblings. Winters smile grew and he changed his grip on Edmunds hand a bit and raised it like a dancer in a greeting.

"Nice to meet you, King Edmund the Just, one of the four Sovereigns of Narnia", Winter said with amused eyes. "That's a long name. Do you mind if I call you Edmund?"

Edmund blinked. No-one had done that in what felt like forever and most specially not on a first meeting, asked to call him just Edmund, he meant. This man seemed to throw all formalities out of the window. Therren growled deeply.

"It is not the way to address the King of Narnia", The Snow Leopard snarled. Winter looked taken aback.

"I'm sorry, my people just don't have rulers so we're not comfortable with titles. And I would probably forget to use it", he said. Therren glowered at Winter and Edmund turned towards The Great Cat.

"It is alright, Therren, I do not mind", Edmund calmed his guard an d turned back to Winter who smiled to him brightly and Edmund found it hard not to smile back.

"If you do not mind my asking, in which people are you referring to?" Edmund asked.

"Nomads", Winter answered shortly. Edmund and the Animals looked Winter confused.

"Nomads? I thought they were just a myth?" Edmund said. Amongst the other tales of Narnia's history and legends he had once stumbled upon a myth of an old people, who were said to be travelers, wandering around the world, different in looks and customs and lastly that they were immortals. The myth had named them as nomads. Edmund had always assumed that the story was just that, a story. He didn't think there could be anyone, not to mention a whole nation, immortal except Aslan. Most of the narnians believed that too.

Winter smiled a little sadly. "No, not a myth. No matter how much we wished we would be."

Edmund frowned. "What do you mean?"

Winter looked Edmund seriously, all traces of smile gone. "Immortality is not a blessing, especially not for us."

"I do not understand", Edmund said.

"You don't have to", Winter answered and turned his face away seeming to look somewhere far away. Edmund nodded slowly and didn't probe any further. He knew very well what it felt like to have something you didn't want think or speak about.

"Could you tell us what you were doing here?" Edmund asked.

"Travelling. I've been walking with the telnorines until now, but the Path pushed me on the move for some reason", Winter said looking a bit brighter.

"The telnorines?" Edmund asked. He had never heard of them.

"Yes, they have camped here not far from you. They call themselves as Telnor", Winter told him.

"Do you know why they are here?"

"They're passing through. You see, when you travel to the coast and follow it to north about a week, you eventually come to a headland which stretches to the east. The headland is uninhabited for it is only tundra and the creatures of the Wild Waste Lands of the North are unable to live there thanks to the sun which doesn't set at all at summer. That's where they are headed", Winter said.

"But why? Has there been a natural disaster or something to make them look for a new areas?" Edmund asked. It was very nice to know where they were headed, but he still didn't know why they were passing through Narnia.

"They are fighting a civil war back in their original homeland."

"Wait, you said Telnor", Edmund said. "Do they originate from Telmar?"

Winter nodded. "Yes, apparently they have some disagreements on how to lead a state so they ended up fighting. Now the Telnor are losing and they are looking for a new place to live in peace as they obviously can't do that at their home."

Edmund frowned contemplatively. If they were only passing, surely they should have realized to make contact with the rulers of the country? Wait, there wasn't any Talking Animals in Telmar was there. And they had come here so early in spring that when they had traveled through the Western Marches there were only the Animals of his people. The fauns that lived in the area were usually at that time traveled to the southern parts of the forest to attend the celebration of spring. They probably hadn't realized that the Animals were part of the habitation in Narnia.

Edmund surfaced from his thoughts and realized he had been rude again.

"I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten my manners. Would you like to sit down?" Edmund said apologetic and pointed a smaller chair which rested near the wall. Winter nodded and moved the chair to the small table opposite of Edmunds and sat down with him.

"Are they friendly people?" Edmund asked.

"The telnorians? Considering… yes", Winter answered.

"Considering?"

"Well, they come practically straight from the battleground. They are a bit suspicious about everything, but on a basic level I say they are much friendlier than the telmarines."

Edmund sat awhile thinking about what he had heard. The telmarines were indeed quite unwelcoming people they had noticed in the few times they had tried to form some sort of friendly intercourse with them. They were terribly warlike, they had almost obsessed sense of direction and they were terribly conservative. After those few times of trying Edmund and his siblings had decided to leave them in their own devices. Between them and Narnia there was The Western Wild so it was quite unlikely that they would form any kind of threat. Although if telnorine refuges planned on traveling through Narnia, they might have a small war in their hands. But as always, he couldn't do anything about it now. He had to wait until captain Calen retruned. In the mean time he could perhaps eat some more, he was terribly hungry again, and get to know their guest better.

"For now that's good enough for me", Edmund said to Winter. "Are you hungry?"

…………….

Next day was a cloudy and cold. Cold enough that Edmund had decided to wear nearly every piece of clothing he had brought on this journey. Winter had seemed amused when seeing him at morning. He had a slight headache from the nightmare he had seen at night but luckily he had gotten some willow bark tea. Now Edmund was walking to a hastily composed canopy where he would receive the leader of the telnorians.

Captain Calen had returned not long after he and Winter had started their dinner, or a second dinner to Edmund. The captain had given a report which matched with the information given by Winter earlier. They were indeed looking for a new home for their people and were headed to the headland beside the Wild Waste Lands of the North. They were friendly if a bit stiff among the narnians and had been quite shocked of the appearance of captain Calen, Fior and Glenned. A meeting had been fixed for today and the telnorines had been informed that they would be meeting one of the rulers of this country. After the report had been given Edmund had dismissed them and they had continued their dinner with Winter.

It had been very interesting. He had found out that Winter was one hundred and fifty years old and had never been in Narnia before. Compared to others of his people Winter was quite young, the oldest of them, their leader of sorts, was over a thousand years old. Edmund had almost choked in his wine when he had heard that. When he had asked how it was possible, Winter had said that the story wasn't among his favorites, or any other nomad for that matter, and that he might tell it to him some other time. As for Winters unusual looks Edmund learned that Winter was actually quite normal looking amongst his people, his father, for example, had blue hair and he had a friend whose eyes were purple and hair silver.

Edmund pondered his new friend. It was strange really, it had been so long when someone other than his brother or his sisters, had called him just Edmund or talked to him as if he were just another ordinary person. He didn't mean that he didn't like being a King of Narnia, he loved his people, loved this land and he didn't know who else he could trust his duties if he weren't a King. But sometimes it felt a bit much, the castle was always full of diplomats from one or another country, something different was always expected of him because he was the King and something, like this for example, was up all the time. Not a moment of peace, where he could be just him, except with his family, but those moments were frighteningly few nowadays. Phillip, Shalang and Therren were also very close to him, but the Great Cats rarely agreed to call him just Edmund and Phillip was most of the time fulfilling his own duties amongst other Horses, when he wasn't carrying him.

Winter managed somehow to make him feel like home and being with someone he had known for years instead of few hours. He was funny, compassionate and endlessly curious about everything. If he found something he didn't know he pestered you about it until he knew as much as you. He seemed to have an unlimited number of stories from all the places he had travelled and every item he owned had its own story also. And he asked terribly lots of questions. What was his family like, what kind of a place Cair Paravel was, what was his favorite food, colour, fighting style or what did he do when he was bored and what it was like to be a king. Endless amount of questions of which Edmund also demanded answers from Winter.

They had stayed up late in the night until they had finally had to call the extended dinner of before they would fell asleep at the table. Winter had wished him a good night and went to set himself a camp of his own to a place a bit farther from their camp. Edmund had offered him a tent but Winter had politely refused. After he had left, Edmund had gone to bed, but stayed awake awhile before he had been able to fell asleep. Too many things had been going on in his head and were still going.

Finally Edmund reached the meeting area. The narnians had built a canopy there and under it was a beautiful chair, they had somehow found. When Edmund had asked, they said it was borrowed from a Bear who collected all kinds of things. Edmund sat on the chair and Fior and Glenned took a stance at either side of him with Therren and Shalang. Edmund was wearing his lighter armour with his a bit finer traveling clothes and wore his silvery crown in his head. Hopefully he looked kingly enough. While they were waiting Edmund talked with the centaurs and his guards until they received a word that the telnorians were approaching. Edmund watched as the men finally came into view. They had darker skin than he had, but paler than the calormens and black hair. The leader and his two companions were all armed to the teeth and wearing light armours fit for traveling.

Edmund watched as the men walked towards him following captain Calen. They stopped in front of him and bowed.

"Your Majesty, may I present to you, lieutenant Martinez and second lieutenants Ispartaco and Siesmun", captain Calen said and turned then to the quests. "His Majesty, Kind Edmund the Just, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March and Knight of the Noble Order of the Table."

Edmund watched the men for a moment before speaking. They looked tired, hungry and although they covered it well, a little scared. Edmund smiled kindly. "Welcome to Narnia, gentlemen. We hope you haven't had a too difficult journey in our kingdom."

The lieutenant stepped forward. "Thank you Your Majesty. We have managed", lieutenant Martinez looked apologetic. "My apologies that we have come to your land uninvited. We tried to find someone along the way who could have brought you a message from us asking permission to pass through your country. But we didn't find anyone and so we continued our travelling as we cannot return."

Lieutenants speech had a strange accent Edmund hadn't heard before. He had never heard the telmarines speaking before. Edmund made sure he looked a little confused. "But you did pass our subjects, several of them the moment you stepped into this land. They informed us of your presence here many days ago."

Now the lieutenant looked confused. "But we didn't see anyone:"

Edmund pretended to think before speaking again. "There isn't any Talking Animals in Telmar, is there?"

"Talking animals, Your Majesty? No I've never heard of such thing", lieutenant said even more confused. He was starting to wonder if perhaps this king was completely sane.

"Ah, that would explain the confusion", Edmund said. "You see, in Narnia part of our subjects are Talking Animals. Of course you wouldn't know it since you have as you said never heard of such. What a pity you had to pass the Western March this time of the year, when most of our subjects there are gone."

"But… Your Majesty…" the lieutenant tried to think how he would say his doubts without offending the King.

Edmund arched his eyebrow. "You do not believe us?"

Lieutenant stammered something and Edmund smiled amused. "Terence!" he shouted and the Sparrow came flying to stand in Edmunds extended hand. "Would you be so kind our good Sparrow, to take a message to our sisters in Cair?"

"Of course Your Majesty. It would be an honour", Terence chirped for an answer and Edmund saw from the corner of his eyes as the telnorines stood there with their jaws hanging open.

"Tell them that we are fairing well and that the matter at North is solved", Edmund said and sent the Sparrow to his task. Then he turned back to his quests. The men were eyeing suspiciously the other Animals in Edmunds troops.

"I'm sorry Your Majesty", the lieutenant stammered. "We really didn't realize."

"We know", Edmund said. "Now, please tell us why have you come to this land?"

The lieutenant started then to tell him of the civil war that was raging inside the kingdom of Telmar and how the rebels, who called themselves as telnor had been fighting against the tyranny for over a year and were losing. They were starting to run out of supplies, weapons and men. The better equipped army of the King was harassing them from every corner. So Lord Sisrlan, their leader, had decided to try and find some other place for their people to live as they wouldn't live under the rule of the current King. They had almost lost hope to find a place when they had met a nomad who had told them of a land in North, behind the Wild Waste Lands of the North. It may not have been the most friendly land, but it was uninhabited and out of reach of the telmarines. So Lord Sisrlan had sent them to travel there first to make a beginnings of a town there and while they were travelling, to contact the Narnia's rulers in order to get a permission to bring their people through their kingdom. The he told Edmund how they had travelled through the Western Wild (Eastern to them) with the nomad as their guide until they had reached Narnia. They had travelled here for almost a week and now they were here. The nomad had left on his own way days ago.

Edmund listened carefully, most of this he already knew thanks to Winter, obviously the nomad they talked about, and captain Calen who had reported everything the telnorians had said, to him on the previous evening.

"This king, how badly will he want you caught and dead?"Edmund asked finally.

"Quite badly I'm afraid, Your Majesty", the lieutenant said looking unsure.

"Badly enough so that his army would follow you here if we let you pass through?"

The lieutenant frowned and glanced at his companions. "Truth to be told, I'm not sure, Your Majesty."

Edmund nodded. "Very well, and how strong his army is?"

"Five thousand men plus two thousand new recruits. They are very strong army, they are skilled in combat and really know how to do their jobs. As we have learned, Your Majesty", Martinez said.

Edmund thought about it. Seven thousand, if they would allow the telnorines pass and the telmarine army would try to follow them, Narnia could fend off the attack. There weren't any other skirmishes going on at the moment, so the whole Narnian army would be able to defend their land and their fighting style would be too strange for the telmarines to fight properly. Edmund was inclined to let the telnorines pass, they would be having their families with them. And his family's policy was to help those who needed it in their country.

"We have made our decision. We shall let you and the rest of you later to pass", Edmund said to lieutenant Martinez, who looked extremely relieved. "Although, we will want to meet Lord Sisrlan."

The lieutenant nodded. "Of course Your Majesty, I'm sure he will be honored to meet you too."

"And we shall personally escort you to the Northern border", Edmund continued. "We will assist your people in any way possible."

The telnorines looked stricken, apparently they weren't used to get help. Edmund smiled. Well, now they were going to get it, whether they wanted or not. Escorting them would also let him see what kind of people they were really helping. They agreed to leave next morning and Edmund invited the telnorines for dinner.

The dinner went well, after the small shock when the telnorines realized they were going to dine with Animals. They were also pleasantly surprised when they saw Winter there having been wondering where he had left. Evening before going to sleep Edmund noticed being in a very good mood. Everything had gone well. As he was starting to get undressed, Winter skipped to his tent and sat himself in one of the chairs he had there.

"Hi."

Edmund cocked his head. "Hi?"

"You're traveling to East, right?" Winter asked smiling.

Edmund nodded. "Yes."

"Perfect, do you mind if I tag along? I'm going to the same direction", Winter asked.

"Of course I don't mind, why would I?" Edmund said wildered.

Winter just smiled, wished him a good night and left the tent leaving a very confused Edmund behind. In the end, Edmund shook his head and decided to go to sleep. He would never sleep if he'd stayed thinking about Winter. He lay down, pulled the blanket over his head and fell asleep in an instant.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm not usually one to fish any comments, but reviews really would be nice. I'd like to know what you think of this little story.

4

"Good morning, Edmund!"

Edmund groaned as an answer to whoever dared to be so cheery so early in the morning. He had had a bad night full of nightmares and he was incredibly tired when he just thought about getting up. He mumbled something unintelligent and buried himself further in his blankets.

"Really, Edmund. They're about to take down the tent", the cheery voice continued. Who owned that voice, Edmund wondered with his sleep filled brains. It sounded a bit familiar. He heard the person shift. "What do you usually do when he doesn't wake up?"

"We try to find the container…"

"…which holds the coldest water…"

"… and throw it onto His Majesty."

Edmund started. Those voices he knew at once as their threat of ice cold water. The not so familiar voice laughed. Edmund raised his head and tried to glower failing quite badly. When he had gotten his eyes open he saw Therren, Shalang and Winter sitting beside his bed. He frowned. How did Winter end up here?

"Come on, up", Winter said and prodded him out of his bed. "We have so much traveling to do today. Surely you don't want to miss it?"

Edmund glared at him again and Winter let another laugh. He had a very nice laugh, Edmund noted distractedly while he stumbled to standing position. Then he fumbled his clothes without actually looking them at any point and started pulling them on. When he was ready after five long minutes he noticed Winter looking him interested.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Your morning rituals are just very interesting", Winter smiled mischievously.

Edmund snorted and put his boots on. Then he stood and yawning left the tent looking for breakfast. Winter and the Leopards followed closely behind him. On the breakfast table Edmund collected before him a huge cup of tea and two toasts from a high pile of them. Apparently whoever was on kitchen duty had thought he would eat all of them. Winter sat opposite of him and snagged some toast from the pile and took a bite from the bread. Edmund watched as he munched it looking thoughtful.

"You've never eaten toast before?" he asked Winter who shook his head taking another bite. Edmund pushed the marmalade towards Winter. "It tastes better with that."

Winter nodded, spread some marmalade on the toast and took a bite. His eyes brightened and he smiled. "Oh, yes. Much better."

"Of course it is", Edmund smirked and finished his breakfast. "We do not have another Horse to carry you but I'm sure Phillip won't mind if he carries us both."

Winter looked up from his sixth toast. "There's no need, I'll rather walk."

"You sure?" Edmund asked.

Winter nodded. "I can run a day without a break if need be. I can manage with my feet."

"Alright", Edmund said and they rose from the breakfast table to make ready for leaving again. Edmunds scouting party would travel with the telnorians to the Northern border as Edmund had promised. They would need to pass the marshes and he would probably need to ask a guide from the Marsh-Wiggles as they were the only one who knew the marshes well enough. Edmund was feeling depressed upon thinking about them already. He couldn't take their pessimism. But as he had decided yesterday, he wanted to see the telnorines to the border himself. He could also find out how the Ettins behind the border were doing. It would be alarming if they were moving again.

The party travelled the whole day slowly thanks to the telnorines keeping very few pauses. On one of these pauses Edmund took the time to hail the Griffins living in the area. They blew their horn to signal the Griffins nearby that they needed to speak to them. The telnorines had watched from a safe distance of the actions of this strange King and his strange subjects. Only lieutenant Martinez had stayed closer looking more interested. When the four Griffins landed in front of Edmund and bowed deeply the narnians heard several intakes of breath as the humans saw more of the miracles of this wild land.

"Well met, our good Griffin", Edmund said talking to the eldest of the group. "May we know your name?"

"I'm Coldwing Your Majesty. How can we be of service?" the Griffin answered sounding out of breath.

"We are in a need of information from behind the Northern border. Would you be able to take few of your kin and fly over Ettinsmoor?" Edmund inquired.

"Well, yes Your Majesty", Coldwing answered. "I'm sure I can gather more than a few of my kin to do this task."

"Thank you", Edmund said. "And while you are there if you could also check the coastline of Ettinsmoor. We are sure our companions would like to know if they will counter any problems in their journey."

The Griffins bowed and took off again soaring through the skies towards North. Otherwise nothing interesting happened that day and when the evening came they made camp partly inside a small forest. As the telnorines refused to camp inside the forest it was mostly full of narnians. Lieutenant Martinez and his second lieutenants dared to the forest enough to have dinner with Edmund and his people but even they left quickly after eating. They had explained their fear of woods (even though they didn't refer it as fear) as a superstition that was common in Telmar. The narnians had shrugged and let the men leave while they ate their dinner in more peaceful pace.

Winter was sitting opposite of Edmund again and seemed to encounter new foods for a second time in one day. Or perhaps it was just the way they were made? Maybe nomads cooked their food differently. Which reminded him of something what Winter had said when they had first met and he had meant to ask at some point. Edmund put his spoon down for a while.

"Winter?" Edmund said and Winter raised his gaze. "What did you meant when you said on that first night that immortality is not a blessing for you?"

Winter froze and slowly lowered his spoon. He didn't look as happy as he usually looked. "It is a part of a story we do not like to tell."

"How so?" Edmund asked.

"It tells the tale of an overly proud people and who eventually fell because of it", Winter said with a bitter tone in his voice before it turned sad. "I guess we deserved it."

Edmund watched this new Winter. This one was sad and seemed older than he looked. Now it was very easy to believe in his immortality. Edmund reached hesitantly and touched Winters hand. "Will you tell me?"

He looked at him for awhile until for a moment a tiny part of his mischievousness returned to his eyes. "If you promise to tell me a not nice story as an exchange someday."

Edmund nodded although he feared he already knew what story he would be telling him. Winter gave him a fleeting smile before he became the sad one again. He took a deep breath and started his story. "It was at the dawn of this world when the Wild Waste Lands of the North were populated by a mighty and glorious people. Their kingdom was one of the most magnificent ones of the young world. They had a safe land, no threats anywhere, they were rich and beautiful. But as many with those qualities, they grew proud and selfish. The rulers and nobility of that people wanted to become even greater than the gods. In their blindness most of the people followed their leaders in this task and they ended up angering the Dark One. As a punishment the Dark One forced them to watch as he destroyed the once beautiful and fertile land to become the waste lands they are today. The people he changed into the werewolves, hags and ghosts who stayed and lived there. However there was a part of that people who saw the error of their ways even though late. They cried for the help of the Light One and begged for His forgiveness. The Light One would have forgiven them but as He watched them She saw only their eventual return to their old ways. And so the Light One decided to give them a teaching of His own. Instead changing them to something else as the Dark One had done She let loose a curse among them that made them immortal, unable to stay still and that should they ever fall in love, they would fall so deeply that they would not be able to live fully after the loved ones death. The Light One told the remaining people to live and wander and learn of what they would see and do, and not to fear of falling in love, so that one day they could return to the land of Light where all creatures have come. They were the first nomads that treaded through this world."

Winter became silent as he ended his tale and picked on his food. Edmund watched him worriedly. "It is true?"

Winter nodded but remained quiet. He still looked a bit weary and Edmund had to fight the urge to stand and go to hug him. Then again maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, he didn't think Winter would mind. He made up his mind and rose from his seat. He walked around the table, sat next to Winter and reached his hand around him. Winter looked at him startled before giving a small smile and laying his head on Edmunds shoulder.

"Is- Is the Light One same as Aslan", Edmund asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure what to think if He was, he had never thought about Aslan doing something like that. Winter shrugged.

"Most likely, but I'm not the person to ask such things. The Light One and the Dark One have never had very much influence in my life if you ask me. I wander in forests and mountains, deserts ans seas, If I need to pray, my prayers go usually to the Mother Nature", Winter answered. Edmund nodded.

"So that's why you wander around the world", Edmund said quietly. "You have no choice?"

Winter shook his head. "No. We call it the Call of the Path. If we are staying still too long it will eventually start tugging. At first just a little and then stronger and stronger as the time passes."

"Path? Does it mean it pulls you in a certain direction?" Edmund asked.

"Not usually. It just urges us to move", Winter shifted into a better position. "But sometimes, it's not very often, it gives us a direction. It usually means that something, that will alter our whole lives will happen as a consequence."

Edmund remembered another part of the conversation they had gone through earlier. "You said that the Path directed you into our way. Does it mean something that'll change your life is here amongst us?"

"Most likely", Winter said.

"Do you know what it is?"

"I think so, but I'm not sure yet" Winter said in a soft voice almost whispering. They sat there quietly for awhile only shifting into a better position every now and then. Edmund was dimly aware that Therren and Shalang were retreated discreetly somewhere in the background. Suddenly Winter spoke.

"Why do you flinch every time you or someone else says my name?"

Edmund startled. "I do not flinch."

"Not visibly, but your eyes shift slightly every time you hear the word", Winter explained himself.

"Oh", Edmund said. "I- I'm sorry. It has nothing to do with you. It's just the season brings me some bad memories."

Winter thought about his answer. "It's part of that not nice story you promised to tell me?"

Edmunds eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know?"

Winter chuckled. "A very good hunch."

"Ah", Edmund sat silent for a moment. "Do you mind if I tell the story some other time?"

"No, just remember that you owe me a story", Winter said eyes twinkling back to his normal self again. Edmund smiled relieved and they talked small and trivial things rest of the evening until they went to sleep. Edmund in his tent while Winter disappeared somewhere in the small forest.

…………..

Next day was as uneventful as the previous one. They continued towards the marshes keeping only few breaks. The telnorians were quite amazed that day when seeing many of the narnians living in the area coming forward to greet their King and walking with them for awhile. Many of them also brought them food to ease their suffering from the monotonous travelling food they were carrying with them. Edmund made sure to thank all of them profoundly. Apparently this was not common behavior in Telmar, Edmund noted amused.

"Is this common?" lieutenant Martinez sounded astonished.

"Edmund chuckled. "More or less. They are not as enthusiastic as they could as they do not know us as well as the people in our woods at West. The Northern areas are normally governed by our royal brother High King Peter."

"This is not enthusiastic?" lieutenant asked faintly, they had to be very popular and good rulers to achieve this kind of loyalty from their people. Edmund laughed as an answer and asked Phillip to take him to another one of their dear subjects.

Around midday they passed a small lake where they stopped to fill flasks but continued shortly their travelling. Most of the day Edmund walked or rode beside Winter talking mostly, of all things, plants that grew on the moors at North. Edmund really didn't know much about plants, only the little he had learned from Lucy, but Winter didn't seem to mind.

In the evening they made camp in a little forest again, where there was a small pond. They camped at the edge of the forest so that telnorians would feel more comfortable while Winter went closer to the pond. That evening Winter didn't join for dinner with them and so Edmund had to spend the rest of the evening alone. Which eventually got him thinking about last night and the evening before it. He had seen nightmares again, not the worst ones, thank Aslan, but enough to damper his mood. He didn't like the idea that he'd have to go through the first few weeks in Narnia again, but he had promised and he doubted that Winter had wanted to tell him of the story which painted his people as selfish and cruel. And Lucy had said that talking to people helped. Edmund just rather didn't, and when it was about the Witch, not even to his siblings no matter how dear they were to him. Maybe talking to Winter would really help and Lucy was right. Edmund gathered his courage and went to find Winter. It was better for him to do it now before he'd lose his determination. He walked inside the little forest, Therren and Shalang quietly following him, and went towards the pond. When he reached the shore he scanned the area and noticed a small cliff on the opposite side of the pond where there seemed to be a fire lit. Slowly Edmund started walking towards it. When he had managed to climb up to the cliff Edmund found Winter lying at the edge of the cliff on his stomach holding his bow above the water. Therren and Shalang stayed farther behind. Edmund watched him curiously.

"What are you doing?"

"Fishing", Winter answered calmly and tugged the bow slightly.

"Oh, right", it looked much more obvious now that Edmund knew what he was doing and he felt himself a little foolish. He moved closer to Winter and pointed a spot next to him. "Do you mind if I sit?"

Winter shook his head and Edmund sat down. "I don't remember when it was the last I fished. I think it was before we came here."

Winter looked at him. "Would you like to?"

"What?" Edmund asked confused.

"To fish", Winter clarified amused.

"Oh, well, I guess that would be nice", Edmund admitted and Winter jerked his head to where his rucksack was lying in the ground.

"I have a spare fishing line, with a fishhook in the outer pocket, you can use them."

"Thank you", Edmund said and went to find the objects in question.

"Not a problem. Just… break them and you're gonna get me new ones", Winter chuckled.

Edmund dug the items from Winters rucksack and searched the ground for sturdy stick to use as a fishing rod. It didn't take long to find one and he tied the line tightly to the other end of the stick. Then he took a bait from Winter and let the hook fall into the water. He laid down next to Winter and they laid there waiting for the fishes to notice their baits.

"Did you have a reason to come here?" Winter asked gently.

Edmund blanched a bit having almost forgotten why he had come. "Yes, I did."

The silence stretched between them until Edmund couldn't stand it anymore. "I- You said you wanted to hear a story for the story you told me."

"Yes", Winter confirmed and waited patiently for Edmund to continue.

Edmund gathered his courage again and started. "Lucy, my younger sister, was the first one to come to Narnia. After she returned back to our world, none of us believed her. Until the next night when she visited here again and I followed her. And met _her_…

"_What is your name, Son of Adam?"_

"_Edmund?"_

"…After we returned back home again, I didn't back Lucy up, but pretended that we had just been playing. But the next day, we broke something, don't remember what anymore, and ran away from the housekeeper to the wardrobe and that way we all ended up in Narnia."

"_Your sister? How many are you?"_

"_Four."_

"…I left them at the Beavers house and went to the Witch…"

"_Edmund, you look so cold. Come and sit with me."_

"… When the Witches dwarf was taking me away I think I realized the first time that I might have done something pretty stupid."

"_How did you do that!?"_

"_I can make anything you like."_

"_Can you make me taller?"_

"_Anything you'd like to eat."_

"_Turkish Delight?"_

"The Witch turned Mr. Tumnus to stone. I saw him when they were taking me to the sleigh. Her wolves found the trail at the river again and her minions brought there also a Fox who had helped my siblings…"

"_Edmund? I would very much like to meet rest of your family."_

"She tricked me to reveal the rest I knew of their plans."

"_Why? They're nothing special."_

"She started to gather an army. It was huge. When the narnians came to rescue me, I wasn't sure which ones I was afraid more, the narnians or the Witch."

"… _you are exactly the sort of boy I could see one day becoming a prince of Narnia. Maybe even a king."_

"_Really?"_

"Early in the next morning a Dryad came to pass us the news of Aslan's death and we had to go to the battle alone. I wasn't sure we would survive it."

"_Do you mean Peter would be king too?"_

"_No" No, no. But a king needs servants." _

"I got wounded in the battle. I broke the Witches wand and she got quite angry."

"_Beyond those woods, see those two hills? My house is right between them."_

"But against all odds, we won. Aslan and the girls came with all the creatures that had been turned to stone in the Witches castle we beat them. And Aslan took care of the Witch."

"_Until then, dear one, I'm going to miss you."_

Edmund sat still and silent after he had finished the story watching intently at his rod. Winter had also sat up while listening and was now looking at Edmund. After a while he put his bow down and shifted right next to Edmund. He circled his arms around Edmund and when he looked up to Winter, Winter just smiled.

"My turn."

Edmund smiled and relaxed.

"She kept you there a long time", Winter said.

Edmund shrugged uncertainly. "A week, perhaps two. I couldn't count the days."

Winter held him tighter. "What did she do?" he asked but Edmund stayed quiet. He wasn't sure could he talk about it. In the end he started to go through the days of his imprisonment, first stumbling, but when Winter just listened without pity in his eyes and lightly stroking his back, he managed to talk about it almost clearly. He told about the dreams that still haunted him even of the worst one in which point Winter asked quietly what he thought it was he had forgotten. Edmund didn't know but he thought it was something that he would have been afraid to, perhaps something concerning his siblings, at that point he had been quite changed boy from what he had been.

Edmund sighed. "I wish I would have jumped behind the piles of snow or something and the Wicth had just driven past me."

Winter thought about it for a while. "But if you hadn't met the Witch, would you be the you, you are now?"

"What do you mean?" Edmund asked after a moment of silence.

"The choices we make defines us, isn't that right? If you hadn't met the Witch, maybe you would still be like the old Edmund you so despise (I didn't actually liked him either). Maybe you needed to meet the Witch so that you could become the Just King you are today."

"…I hadn't thought about it that way", Edmund said slowly.

"Everybody makes mistakes, Edmund", Winter said. "The important thing is that you learn from them. Isn't that what makes us humans. And when in Narnia, Talking Animals, fauns, centaurs dryads and terribly lots of creatures", he added to which Edmund chuckled.

Edmund turned his head to look Winter in the eyes and circled his another arm around his shoulders. "Thank you", he said. "I guess Lucy was right, talking does help."

Winter smiled and nodded. "You're welcome."

Edmund couldn't suddenly take his eyes away from Winters face. Or more importantly from his eyes. He had such a beautiful eyes, some would probably be freaked out by them but Edmund liked them. They suited Winter well. _Wonder if Winter likes men_, he thought and then startled. Where on earth had that come from? Although he couldn't deny that he would like to kiss Winter. His eyes trailed to Winters lips, a bit pale perhaps as was his whole complexion but soft and inviting, before quickly shifting back up chiding himself for thinking like that. Winter was just a friend, right? The fact that their faces were inching towards one another seemed to overrule that assumption. Edmunds stomach was full of butterflies and his breath had quickened. He had never been this tangled up when about to kiss someone. Just as their lips were millimeters apart from each other there was a loud splash and high-pitched chirping of a Nightingale.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty", she chirped and Winter dashed to save his bow, a fish had eaten the bait while Edmund turned towards the Bird partly in a daze still.

"What- what is it?" he managed to ask.

"I have an urgent message to deliver to Your Majesty", the Bird informed. "It is from your sisters, Sire."

Edmund rolled his eyes. Of course it was. "Alright, let me see."

Edmund extended his hand and the Bird dropped a letter in it. Edmund opened it and found the contents to be what he expected from Susan. A large amount of questions from his health to the telnorines presence. Edmund sighed, he knew he'd need to write back to her as quickly as possible.

In the mean while Winter had lifted the fishes both from his bow and Edmunds fishing rod and was gutting the fishes when Edmund turned from the Bird after thanking of the delivery and stucking the letter to his pockets. Winter raised one of the fishes.

"Hungry?"

Edmund stopped for a moment while Winter continued to act as if nothing had happened. Maybe it hadn't? Edmund shook his head. It had happened. But Winter didn't seem to want to acknowledge it. Maybe he should play along and see what would happen. Edmund nodded.

"I could eat a little bit."

Winter nodded and gutted the second fish also. Then he put both of them in a stick and above the fire. Rest of the evening they talked about Edmunds siblings until he had to return to the camp to get some sleep. That night was a first night in a long time when his dreams were troubling about something else than the Witch. But when he woke up in the next morning he couldn't remember what he had dreamed.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Hey! Terribly sorry for the delay, but here it is, the fifth chapter. A bloody difficult one too, I'm not completely happy about it, it was hard to get it right. But hopefully you'll like it.

And thank you for the rewiew, no need to worry. I'm not gonna leave this unfinished. Edmund and Winter's story is longer than just this one fic.

5

Next day they reached the marshes. Edmund hid a grimace as he sent few fauns and the Fox Cone to find a Marsh-Wiggle who would agree to work as their guide. He had counted that crossing of the marshes would take day and a half in minimum and Edmund prayed they could manage the trip that quickly. Even in his minimum assessment they would need to spend a night in here. He just knew his mood would be seriously dampened for that time. The Marsh-Wiggles had that effect on him.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, what are we waiting for", lieutenant Martinez had come next to him.

"We are waiting for a guide", Edmund said. "Our knowledge of the marshes are very poor and as such we will be in need of a guide who will show us the safest way through."

The lieutenant nodded and returned to his men and to explain. After a half an hour the fauns and Cone returned with a guide in their tow. The Marsh-Wiggle was as normal to their race, tall and gangly with green-gray complex and a forlorn look in his face. He walked in front of Edmund and bowed his hat nearly falling from his head.

"Good day Your Majesty, although I doubt the day will be very good", the Marsh-Wiggle greeted him and Edmund stifled a sigh.

Edmund nodded. "Good day. May we know your name?"

"Rapakko, Your Majesty."

"Very well", Edmund said quickly before Rapakko would add something depressing. "Now would you be able to show us the way through the marshes?"

"I suppose I could, but we will most likely end up in a soggy spot and die a horrible death. This way Your Majesty" Rapakko turned and started walking.

Edmund sighed again. "Great, he's in a good mood", he mumbled before following. Winter seemed thrilled at meeting a Marsh-Wiggle. He walked with the pessimistic creature and argued with him about pessimistic and optimistic things. And was having fun the whole time. Edmund shook his head. He had to admit that Winter was very peculiar person. And amazing, Edmund had realized on the previous evening after getting to bed that he had a crush on Winter. Now it seemed that Winter didn't have other feelings than friendship towards him even though they had almost kissed. Winter had been avoiding him all day and when unable to do that, treated him very politely. But Edmund didn't want him to treat him _politely_. Almost anything else would be better. He wished he knew what he had done wrong.

Edmund gazed at Winter wistfully before sighing and focusing on the telnorines. At least he had slept a little better than normally. Lucy had been right. Talking helped, maybe he should've talked about them before, but on the other hand there wasn't anyone he would have agreed to talk. Peter and Susan would've worried way too much if they knew what he dreamt of and Lucy, he just couldn't burden his sweet little sister with his nightmares. Lucy wouldn't have minded, he knew that, but he would've.

Rest of the day they travelled through the silent marshes following carefully behind Rapakko. When the evening came Rapakko found them a relatively dry spot to make camp. After they had settled Edmund was called to hear out the returning Griffins who brought news from the North. According to the Griffins there was very little movement at North and at the coast it was almost nonexistent. Which was very good for the telnorians but the small amount of movement worried him a bit. The Ettins were known of their not so quiet and quarrelsome nature. If there weren't anything going on amongst the Ettins, it could mean that they had their eye on something else. And that something could be Narnia again. Well, now he had even more news for his siblings when he returned home.

Edmund ordered the Griffins to rest and told them to continue scouting in the morning. Then he turned and headed towards his tent. He was incredibly tired. He figured it was because of the marshes, they got him in a bad mood and as a consequence he became tired for trying not to snap at everyone. Edmund startled when he felt a drop of water hitting his cheek. He looked to the sky. _Great, now it's raining_, Edmund thought sourly. He mumbled some swear words and was continuing his way when he noticed a figure standing in a small distance away. It didn't take him a long time to recognize the figure as Winter. Edmund stopped and watched him pondering if he could go there. He really wanted, but if Winter didn't? He wouldn't avoid him if there wasn't a reason, right?

Making up his mind Edmund walked to Winter and stopped next to him. He was standing quietly, hands hanging in his sides, relaxed and head tipped slightly up eyes closed.

"Is- isn't it uncomfortable standing here in the cold rain?" Edmund asked hesitantly.

"No. not exactly. Maybe the cold, but I like the rain", Winter answered without looking at Edmund.

"Really?"

"Yes. It cleans things. Makes them beautiful again", Winter said.

Edmund stood silent for awhile. He sort of understood what Winter meant. It was mostly the aftermath of the rain that made Edmund feel the same way about it. Everything seemed fresh and new after a rain but Edmund usually skipped the actual raining, except in summer. Edmund tried to watch the marshes through the darkness.

"Well, it has a lot of work to do with this place", he mumbled.

Winter tipped his head to his side. "You don't think marshes are beautiful?"

"Mmm… No, not particularly", Edmund answered.

"I think they are. You just have to look to find it."

Edmund wrapped his arms around himself. "I guess."

Winter opened his eyes and turned to look Edmund. Edmund answered to his gaze and tried to gather his courage to ask about yesterday. But before he managed to open his mouth Winter spoke smiling gently. "Edmund, you're tired. You should go to sleep."

Edmund smiled weakly. "It shows?"

Winter nodded. Edmund pressed his head down and stared at his shoes swallowing with difficulty. "I guess I should go then", he raised his head and tried to smile while wishing good night to Winter. He then turned in his heels and headed towards his tent again where Therren and Shalang would be waiting for him.

If he would have looked back he might have seen Winter looking at his retreating form with pained eyes and crouched pressing his head into his slightly trembling hands. Winter drew a shaky breath. "What to do, what to do?"

…..

Edmund watched Winter walking with the telnorians today and talking animatedly. He was avoiding him again. And he still didn't know why. Though there could be dozens of reasons, how would he know the reasoning of a hundred and fifty years old nomad. He knew there were things hard for him to understand, many things he hadn't yet experienced that were old things to Winter. But he hoped that he would get the chance to try and understand and right now he would give almost anything to understand why Winter was avoiding him. Edmund sighed and turned his gaze forward. Unbeknownst to him Therren and Shalang exchanged knowing looks between each other and nodded to themselves.

"Sire…" Therren started.

"…something is bothering you", Shalang stated.

"It shows?" Edmund asked a little amused.

"Very faintly", Phillip said.

Edmund was quiet for awhile thinking what to say. He couldn't avoid the question by telling he was alright, the Talking Animals usually knew if someone was lying.

"It's Winter", Edmund said eventually.

"Ah, we thought so", Therren said sounding pleased that they were right.

"Winter is also distressed", Shalang told Edmund and he shifted his gaze to the big Cat.

"He is?" Edmund asked. If Winter was distressed perhaps there was something more pressing bothering him than their almost kiss. Or then he was really avoiding him because of it. Maybe he should ask him about it. See if he could help. It probably wouldn't hurt as he was planning on talking to him anyway.

"What about Winter, Sire?" Phillip asked continuing their conversation.

"He's avoiding me and I'm not sure if it was something I did or is it something he has done?" Edmund answered.

Theren and Shalang changed looks and tipped their head slightly. "You like him…"

"…don't you, Sire?"

Edmund looked from a Leopard to Leopard. "I- I-", he sputtered.

Edmund shut his mouth for a second to compose a proper reply. "I guess I do."

"Then why don't you…"

"…go to him and tell him about it?"

Edmund rolled his eyes. "It's a bit hard when he is avoiding me." And the thought of telling his feelings scared the crap out of him. He had never done anything like it before, never met a man to which he would have fallen this badly. Edmund knew he needed to tell Winter fairly quickly, before the Path would start calling him again. And he was trying, really trying. He just wasn't sure if it was good enough.

"Then you should hunt him down, Sire. If you don't be careful you might lose the chance", Phillip read his thoughts. Edmund sighed. He was not going to make it, he knew it. But at least he could try. In the evening when they had stopped again. They should reach the border cities at River Shribble then.

…

The telnorines stared at the cities of Shribble open mouthed. They situated along the river bend in a two similar hills. The other city, Little Shribble as they had come to call it, most likely wouldn't have gotten a second glance but the other city, Big Shribble, that lay one or two miles from the Little was the one that caught the attention. The Big Shribble was habited by the narnian giants and as such was huge as the name hinted. Little Shribble was more like normal sized city. Edmund smiled at the telnorines reaction, he had reacted much the same way when he had seen it for the first time.

They were heading to the smaller town although Edmund supposed he needed to make a visit to the Big Shribble. But he could do that later. Now they needed to settle down for the night and Edmund wanted to hear what the city's military personnel had to tell him about the Ettins.

Edmund searched around him to find lieutenant Martinez and finding him waved him to come over.

"Your Majesty?" Martinez asked as he reached Edmunds side. He tried very carefully to stay out of Shalangs way.

Edmund turned his gaze to him. "We wanted to inform you that you are welcome to stay here as long as necessary for you to rest and gather your strength for your journey. Also, if there is anything lacking in your supplies talk to captain Calen. He can sort things out for you."

Martinez nodded and frowned. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but why are you doing this? Helping us, I mean, and so much?"

Edmund tilted his head. "Why wouldn't we help you? We have no reason not to."

"But…", Martinez stammered. "I'm sorry. We just haven't… used to people helping us without them having some sort of ulterior motive."

Edmund nodded slowly. "You must come from a really different place then."

Martinez nodded. "Yes, it is."

They continued towards the cities and the lieutenant returned to his people once again. Edmund sighed as his thoughts started circling around Winter again. He would talk to him tonight, Edmund promised himself again.

They moved quickly to the city, the citizens coming to the side of the street to look at the travelers. Edmund headed towards the largest house where the mayor was living. The mayor was sharp looking dwarf who glared suspiciously at the telnorians until Edmund calmed his mind by telling their purpose in Narnia. They were shown their rooms and welcomed to the evening dinner as soon as they could arrive to the main hall. During dinner Edmund discussed with the mayor and the lieutenant about Ettinsmoor's habitats. The telnorines didn't have any idea what kind of creatures lived in Ettinsmoor and beyond it. But they were determined to make their plan work so Edmund wasn't very concerned. If the narnians could keep their Northern neighbors at bay, then to a people used to fighting, it shouldn't cause too much trouble. And Edmund was going to help them as much as he could. He wasn't sure why, but he felt terribly strongly that he _had to_ help them. That it was very important. Why, Edmund didn't know, but he had this inkling it might have something to do with Aslan. It was the same kind of feeling he had had in the Battle of Beruna when he had broken the Witches staff. He had gotten those feelings few times after the battle, but it hadn't been this strong since that first time.

So, he was going to do everything he could to help these people to create a place of their own to live.

And try and talk to Winter.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for reviewing!

Chapter six is done, yay! It's shorter than usual, but it couldn't be helped. Hope you'll enjoy.

6.

Edmund was walking through the corridors stopping to look behind every door. He had planned catching Winter after dinner but he hadn't showed up to eat. Apparently he had eaten elsewhere. So, his only option was to search Winter out. And it wasn't an easy task. The man could disappear apparently anywhere. But he really needed to talk to him, his bodyguards were right, if he didn't "hunt him down" as they said, he would possibly never find out what Winter thought about him.

It was strange actually, he had never fallen like this to anyone or anything. And in only one week. Not even that, if he thought about it. Winter just made him feel calm. And safe, amazingly. Even though his name brought back unpleasant memories, it was becoming less and less obvious to him that winter was always the same as the Witch. Half of the time when someone now mentioned winter, his first image was the gray haired odd nomad. Also, his presence seemed to help at his "spring nightmares". He hadn't seen them in a couple of nights. Not after he had told his story to Winter. Perhaps he was so drawn to him because he had never met anyone like Winter before, not to mention he was incredibly compassionate, friendly and looked… beautiful. Edmund didn't know how to describe his looks otherwise.

Everyone else he had ever met were some sort of nobility and ambassadors from other countries. And most of them were stuck up snobs who hadn't done anything just of the goodness of their hearts in their whole life. Also, most of them were very shallow people if they otherwise were alright. Sorting out his experiences with the Witch would be nearly impossible with them. Winter on the other hand had managed to give him a totally new point of view. He really hadn't thought of his experience with the Witch like Winter had presented it to him. Silly really, it seemed very logical now when he thought about it.

Edmund walked around the corner and ended up in a corridor which led to the courtyard. It too was filled with doors and Edmund started determinedly to look them through. When he couldn't find Winter in any of them, he moved to the courtyard. _Should have known that he wouldn't be inside,_ Edmund thought fondly. As a person who had spent most of his life outside, the halls and corridors must've seemed suffocating to Winter. He wondered if Winter could be in Cair Paravel. It was very airy and light, much more than Little Shribble.

Edmund stopped in the middle of the courtyard and looked around him frustrated. Winter could be anywhere. But he was lucky this evening and as he searched his surroundings, he noticed a familiar figure sitting at the top of the north wall. Edmund was starting to feel nervous again, but he squashed the feeling determinedly. He had to do this. Otherwise he would never get any peace of any kind. Although if Winter didn't like him at all, he might not get any peace at all ever. He was so in love with Winter.

Edmund started climbing to the wall and upon reaching Winter, sat down next to him. They sat in silence for awhile, only nodding to each other as greetings.

Edmund bit his lip. "Winter, have I offended you somehow?"

Winter turned to look at him confused frown in his face. "Offended? No, you haven't. How come you think that?"

Edmund stared at his boots not daring to look at Winter. "You have been avoiding me since the night we were fishing."

Winter blinked as if realizing for the first time how he had been acting for the last days.

"Ah." Winter seemed to be at loss of words.

"I just…", Edmund started saying, not quite knowing how to continue. "I don't understand. Just, please, tell me what I have done wrong. I really, really like you and care about you like I never have cared for anyone before. I really don't want you to be upset because of me."

Edmund lifted his head and looked at Winter and started a bit. Winter was looking at him with sad and anguished eyes looking desperate and scared at the same time. Small tears formed in his eyes and biting his lip, he grabbed suddenly Edmund's head with both hands and pulled him into a deep and passionate kiss that would have probably made his feet give away underneath him if he had been standing. In the short moment when he was surprised by Winters kiss, he felt a number of things like he hadn't felt like before. Sure he had felt them before, but now they seemed stronger that before. The shivers that ran through him seemed more intense, the warmth that pooled somewhere down in his groin seemed stronger and the kiss, it wasn't enough. He wanted closer, than he had ever before and he wanted it to last longer than it had before. Edmund tried to move closer and wrap his arms around Winter, but before he managed to do anything Winter had pulled away and was watching him closely keeping him at a distance.

"I'm sorry", Winter whispered voice wavering.

Then he grabbed his rucksack that Edmund hadn't noticed, from the ground next to him and jumped down from the wall. Edmund rushed to look down, scared to death, but couldn't see anything In the dim light of the moon.

"Winter!"

No answer came, even though he waited it for a long time. He couldn't hear anything. There was a hard and painful lump forming in his throat and his eyes were itching painfully. He must have stood at the wall for hours before he managed to stumble to his quarters and collapse into the bed.

He remembered just before he slipped to the dreamland, that Winter's face had been wet from tears.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Yay!I've been energetic! See? What is it, less than a week (?) and I've gotten another chapter out! :)

7.

Lucy held the hems of her dress high to prevent her from stumbling as she ran as fast as she could through the garden of Cair Paravel, intending to head to the small cliff outside their garden where a lone aspen tree stood still bare from the winter. The tree had started growing the leaves back, she knew and the dryad of the tree should be awakening any day now. And that was the reason she had ran here every day for the last week.

The aspen was a tree of the dryad Shrinel. He and Lucy had been in love since Edmund had introduced them to each other about two years ago. Peter had been an over protective big brother and had been extremely suspicious for ages until he had finally let the matter go when Lucy had unusually lost her temper. Susan had been desperate and a little jealous, Lucy was the youngest of them; she shouldn't be dating boys yet! Lucy had found that attitude quite amusing. And Edmund, he had watched them from the sidelines only interfering to give his threats to Shrinel if he ever hurt his sister. Lucy didn't know what Edmund had said to Shrinel, but the poor dryad had been shaking worse than his tree in a storm when Edmund had been done with him.

Lucy stopped beneath the tree sighing contently and sitting down. Her bodyguards, two Lynxes, came running to the cliff, slightly out of breath.

"My Lady, you really shouldn't run off like that. How are we supposed to protect you then?" the other said frowning if it was possible for a Lynx.

"Oh, you worry too much, Nara, we are at home. Nothing's going to happen here", Lucy answered and turned towards the tree. "Oh, come on Shrinel, wake up already. I miss you."

If there was a down side in falling in love with a dryad, it was the fact that then dryads of the deciduous trees fell asleep in winter with their trees. Of course they couldn't help it, but it made Lucy a bit sad that Shrinel couldn't celebrate Christmas with her and her family.

Today felt different, Lucy decided. The aspen seemed like it was stretching it's branches higher than earlier and the buds were larger than they had been yesterday, Lucy was sure of it. Shrinel had to wake up today. It would be a perfect day, the last signs of winter had finally disappeared and Edmund would be home any day now. Peter was still in Terebithia, he had sent them a message that he was going to stay a few weeks longer than he had originally planned. He hadn't given them any particular reason for his prolonged stay but Susan suspected it had something to do with a certain terebithian lady who had been in many of Peter's letters.

The tree let a deep groan and Lucy sat up straighter. Nara and her partner Lessa sat side by side tails wrapped around their paws and observed the surroundings. The aspen let another groan and fell silent once again. Lucy waited a moment but when nothing happened, she sighed and leaned against the tree again. She was certain that Shrinel hadn't slept this long last spring.

Then she felt something tickling her neck.

"Hello, catkin", a sleepy voice that always reminded her of a wind rustling through the leaves said.

Lucy smiled brightly and turned to look at the dryad above her, who hadn't come completely out of his tree yet. She could see his head and shoulders sticking out from the trunk. He had a sleepy smile on his silvery gray colored face and his green eyes were looking at her happily. His hair hadn't grown yet, it was full of catkins that hanged over his eyes.

Lucy stood and moved so that Shrinel could step out of the tree. The second he was out, he had arms full of the youngest Queen of Narnia. Shrinel chuckled slightly, it sounded like the footsteps of little squirrels running in the branches.

"I missed you too", he said.

"I'm so glad that you're awake! I've been waiting for ages", Lucy said kissing him on the cheek.

Shrinel smiled sweetly and gave her a peck on the lips. "Hopefully not too long."

"You woke up just in time. I couldn't have waited much longer", Lucy grinned.

They were hugging and petting each other and whispering sweet nonsense when they heard a horn from the castle. Lucy frowned before her face brightened.

"It's Edmund! He's home!" she gushed.

Shrinel smiled. "Well, let's go see him then."

He untangled himself and took Lucy's hand in his own and was heading down to the path when Lucy's giggle stopped him. He looked at her confused.

Lucy covered her smile with her hand and giggled some more. "You might want to put some clothes on. I don't think the foreign people would understand."

Shrinel looked down on himself and blinked. "Oh."

…

The moment Lucy saw Edmund, she knew something was wrong. She could tell Susan suspected something too. Riding with Phillip, Edmund looked a bit shabby from the long traveling but smiled to the narnians they passed, waved at them and looked just like normal on the outside. But Lucy knew better, there was a small shift in his stance and shadows in his eyes. Small change, but very clear one to Lucy. She would need to talk to him once they were alone. He would try to keep whatever was gnawing him hidden from them because he wouldn't want to worry them. What her dear brother didn't seem to understand was that they got more worried because he didn't talk than if he actually talked for once. Lucy was very grateful that she could get through him most of the time.

It was already an afternoon when Edmund came back, she hadn't realized she had spent so much time at Shrinel's tree. The time moved quickly as Edmund settled back in the castle avoiding clearly talking about his problem any time they asked. He was very good at changing subject.

Of course they were important matters to which Edmund insisted talking rather than his personal problems, but Lucy would have preferred that. Edmund had everything under control marvelously. She agreed whole heartedly with Edmund's decision to help the telnorines even though it might lead to not so nice consequences with Telmar. Susan wasn't objecting either and Lucy doubted Peter would do that either. And more importantly, if Edmund felt that Aslan had given His blessing over this matter it was very important to help. Not that they wouldn't do that anyway.

Now, later on the evening, she was heading towards Edmund's rooms to drill him about his trip. Edmnd had disappeared immediately after dinner and Susan had asked her to go and talk to him as the two of them had always been a bit closer than the others. After Shrinel had told her that he would go meet some other dryads that had woken up recently so that they could talk in peace, she had went to search him. Although she didn't have to look for him much, he would be in his rooms at the western side of the castle.

When she reached the door of his rooms, she knocked softly. No answer came, but Lucy opened the door anyway. She stepped inside closing the door behind her and looked around. The room was dimly lit, only one candle was standing on the bureau next to the balcony doors that were wide open. Lucy walked to the doors and peeked outside. As she had expected, Edmund was leaning on the rail looking down on the ground. He was looking extremely miserable. Lucy walked next to him and leaned on to the rail.

"Hi, Ed."

Edmund sighed. "Please Lucy, I don't want to talk."

Lucy looked at her brother concerned. He sounded broken and unhappy.

"That's what you always say, Ed", Lucy answered. "And you still talk to me."

Edmund snorted sadly. "I suppose you're right."

Lucy waited, but Edmund didn't continue. "Please Edmund, tell me what happened? I'm worried."

Edmund shook his head. "Nothing happened."

Lucy frowned, Edmund sounded bitter about the fact for some reason.

"Well, something happened since you are brooding so badly. Was it your nightmares? And don't even try to lie, you know I know when you do", Lucy said.

Edmund sighed. "Do I have to?"

Lucy nodded.

He didn't say anything for a while. Lucy could see he was looking for words. Lucy grew even more concerned. Whatever had happened, it had had a great impact on his dear brother.

"I met someone", Edmund finally said scratching the stone railing with his fingernails.

Lucy blinked, not quite what she had been expecting although she wasn't sure what she had been expecting. "Someone? As in _The_ Someone?"

Edmund nodded.

Lucy frowned. "But… What happened?"

"He left", Edmund whispered, his voice failing him. It was clear to Lucy that tears weren't far. And Edmund didn't cry very often.

"Oh, Edmund", Lucy said and moved to hug him. "It's so not fair."

Edmund gave a teary laugh and wrapped his arm around her tightly. "You're right about that."

Why did nearly everything be so difficult to Edmund.

They stood there for a while until Lucy looked at Edmund's face and noticed how tired he was. She untangled herself and pulled his brother into his bedroom.

"You need to sleep, Ed", Lucy said. "We can talk more tomorrow. I want to hear more about him."

Edmund only nodded which made Lucy lift her eyebrows. He was being unusually compliant with the prospect of talking. Apparently something else had changed too. Edmund shed some of his clothes off, while Lucy went to pick up the candle and brought it to Edmund's nightstand.

"You know what the funny thing is?" Edmund said.

Lucy shook her head.

"I've known him for a week, plus one or two days, and I'm head over heels in love with him. Did it happen so quickly with you and Shrinel?" Edmund asked.

Lucy sat on the bed. "I'm not sure actually."

Edmund raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I was smitten with him almost from the day one and he with me. I'm not sure exactly where it changed to something deeper. But I don't honestly see why you couldn't fall in love with someone in a week", Lucy said. "I guess it's a bit rare, but not unheard of."

Edmund nodded looking thoughtful. Then he sighed and slumped to the bed. "Just my luck."

He yawned gloriously and rubbed his face with his other hand. Lucy took it as cue to leave.

"Alright, I'll leave you to sleep. If you need anything you can come and wake me up", Lucy said and stood. "We'll talk more tomorrow."

Edmund nodded sleepily and smiled, bit faintly though but smiled anyway.

"Good night, Ed."

"G'night, Lu."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Okay, finally the chapter number eight. Apologies for being slow, but Yule- time always distracts me a lot. I just love it. But anyway, here it is.

And thank you for the reviews. _smallleachlikeyellowfish46_, no need to worry, the chapters will come even if it sometimes takes more time :)

8.

"No, no, no", Susan said hurriedly to a cheery little Squirrel who was showing her the color choices for the midsummer party. "Not the blue ones! We need the green napkins."

The Squirrel nodded and shot along the corridor to change the napkins. Susan sighed contentedly. She loved arranging parties. The Midsummer Ball was a celebration they had orchestrated every year since their arrival for the delight of their people. The narnians loved parties and of course the party was at excellent time of the year for the foreign dignitaries to come and visit, some to just celebrate (everybody knew that the narnian parties were the best in the entire world probably) and some came on business.

Her brothers, of course, stayed out of her way the best they could and were completely useless anyway in these matters and Lucy helped when she wasn't running around with Shrinel and her friends. Edmund he could sort of understand although she thought Edmund took it a bit too far. Ever since Edmund had returned from the little trip of his to the North he had either been working nonstop or brooding in his rooms. Of course she understood why Edmund was brooding, Lucy had told her of the strange nomad Edmund had met and fallen in love with, but that was a couple of months ago. She thought it was time for Ed to move on. It couldn't be healthy to brood that much and she was afraid that Edmund would work himself into exhaustion. Add to the fact that Edmund didn't fare well with lady Ileysiana, didn't help the matters at all. Peter had returned a bit over a month ago with lady Ileysiana from Terebithia. And Peter was quite in love with her and she with him. Susan didn't know if it was the sight of them being so in love right in front of him, when he had just been dumped that made his dealing with the beautiful lady difficult or was it the slightly conservative upbringing that was the problem. Most of the time the upbringing didn't show at all, lady Ileysiana was a very open minded person, but apparently she didn't know how to act around Edmund after she had found out Edmund's sexual preferences.

Susan stepped outside the castle and headed to the nearby field in their gardens, where the celebration would be held. She needed to check the setting and the sitting arrangement before the evening for the last time. Otherwise everything was ready.

When she arrived to the field, she saw lady Ileysiana circling around the area and inspecting the settings. Her eyebrows rose slightly, what was she doing in here. Was she bored perhaps?

"Hello, lady Ileysiana", Susan said as she reached her. "How are you today?"

Lady Ileysiana was a beautiful woman, she had a long, golden hair quite like Lucy although she wore them in different kinds of hairstyles when Lucy most of the time let her hair run mostly free. She had a frail build and she looked like a blowing wind could knock her over. She was at least ten centimeters shorter than Susan and Lucy and she had a gorgeous blue eyes. She wore terebithian clothes, corsets and all and today she had chosen to wear a blue dress with wide neckline and large sleeves.

"Quite fine, Your Majesty", the lady answered giving a small curtsey. "Do you suppose your brothers have finished their business?"

Peter and Edmund had been conversing the whole day with the ambassador of Ngyua. The ambassador was being terribly difficult and they hoped they could get the problems solved before the celebration.

"I'm not sure, it seemed to be very hard matter to solve", Susan answered. "But if you go to the castle and find Mr. Tumnus, he knows the answer."

They had had an extremely busy spring this year and the problems with Ngyua were from the more difficult end of them. Calormen had also managed to create several problems with them in Lone Islands and in Seven Isles. Galma had been swarming with smugglers until the situation had been gotten under control and then there was the telnorines. Edmund had taken their situation almost as his own project, probably because of the 'feeling' he said he had on them. Peter helped where he would and would most likely help the most when the battles of telmarines and telnorines would reach Narnia. It was very likely, Edmund had assured them, as the telmarines weren't known for letting the matter drop and when the last of the telnorines would make their retreat, the telmarines would most surely follow. The telnorines would need help at that point when they would reach their borders. The journey through the Western Wild was not an easy one and they would be quite exhausted.

Susan sighed. Adding to those their normal duties, it was quite a workload and Edmund seemed to drown himself into it. She really hoped that something would happen to snap him out of it.

Susan glanced around her for the last time and headed then to her quarters to change to her evening dress.

….

Susan studied the crowd as she mingled amongst the narnians and the other guests glaring at the tree line every now and then. Last year Bacchus and his wild madcap girls had appeared in Narnia earlier than normally and scared most of the foreigners. It had very much ruined her party, in her opinion and she didn't want it to happen again. Although if it were to happen again, there wasn't anything she could actually do about it.

She was very satisfied of her celebration despite the fear that last year would repeat itself. Everything was going as smoothly as possible, the food was excellent, the music was perfect and people were enjoying themselves. The only downside was that she couldn't find Edmund anywhere. He had disappeared to brood somewhere, she was sure of it. Now she just needed to find him and get him back at the party. It wasn't proper for one of the hosts to be absent. So, she set out to find him.

She found him at a cliff not far away from Shrinel's tree. It wasn't very surprising place for Edmund to be. Most of their family used this spot when they needed to think. Lucy said it was because Aslan lived in the East.

Edmund was sitting near the edge staring at the sunset and wringing pieces of weeds between his fingers.

"Hi, Su."

Susan started a bit. She had never gotten used to the habit Edmund had of noticing people approaching him. It was almost scary. Susan walked over to him and sat down.

"Oh, Edmund, are you still brooding over him? Why can't you let go?" she sighed.

Edmund snorted. "Trust me, I've tried. I just can't forget him. And that's the problem I think."

Susan watched him closely. He wasn't smiling, he didn't do that much anymore not even those slightly humorous smiles he had when he was proven right about something. That was the biggest change in him, if asked her. Normally he smiled a lot, not very big or noticeable smiles, but smiles anyway. He looked a bit pale and tired, but otherwise he seemed alright. At least on the outside. Inside, Susan knew he was hurting, she could see it from the way he went to the western or northern tower at night, or the way he looked at couples or the way he had stopped seeing other men even in one night basis. It really made her hate that Winter-guy.

"Or is it that you don't _want_ to forget him?" she asked.

"Both." Edmund smiled humorlessly.

"I don't think that's very healthy, Edmund", Susan tried. "You drown yourself into work. You'll exhaust yourself. You haven't sparred with Peter since he came back or sniped at my obsession of perfect parties. I'm worried."

"Ahah! So it is an obsession", Edmund attempted.

Susan glared at him.

"I know, Susan", Edmund smiled apologetically. "But there's nothing you can do about it. I think he was the one."

Susan lifted her brows. "The one?"

"Yes, that one person I will ever come to love and all that nonsense. I've had months to think about it, Su. I'm not going to find anyone else nor do I want to."

Susan grabbed his arm. "But you'll be unhappy. And you'll burn yourself out."

"No, I won't be unhappy, I have you all. But I guess I won't be completely happy either. And I doubt that you let me burn myself out", Edmund smiled at her.

Susan frowned at him. "Well, you got that right."

Edmund chuckled and they sat silently, Edmund gazing at the sunset and Susan scrutinized her hands thoughtfully.

"Edmund?" Susan said finally. "Why… why do you think he left?"

Edmund went rigid for a moment before his shoulders sagged.

"I- I'm not sure", he said quietly. "I mean he wasn't… okay with it, I think. He was crying when he left."

Susan raised her eyebrows. "Crying?" she didn't remember him telling that before, not even to Lucy. She bit her lip as she thought about it.

"But wouldn't that mean that he had some very heavy reasons to leave? Perhaps he didn't want to leave, but he didn't have a choice", Susan mused.

Edmund wringed his hands. "You really think so?"

Susan shrugged. "It is a possibility."

"That would mean that he might come back someday", Edmund smiled wistfully. "I'd like to think that."

Susan smiled gently and hugged him. "Yes, do that. But in the mean time, you have a party to attend to. Perhaps it'll cheer you up from your moping."

Edmund frowned at her. "I do not mope."

Susan raised her eyebrow.

"I don't", he insisted.

She rolled her eyes and dragged Edmund up. "Come on, it will be fun."

Edmund eyed her suspiciously. "Is lord Castell there?"

Susan laughed. Edmund had had problems with the young man ever since he returned. Apparently the young lord was very attracted to Edmund did almost anything to gain his attention. It had lead to many embarrassing situations.

"No, he has gotten a cold and is unavailable for the next few days."

Edmund sighed relieved. "Oh, thank Aslan."

"Will you come?" Susan asked and Edmund blinked surprised. Susan didn't usually ask, more like ordered.

He smiled a little and nodded. "Alright. I'll come."

Susan smiled happily and led him towards the party. Therren and Shalang trailed after them, pleased that the Queen had managed to cheer king Edmund up a little.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I've been energetic again :D, jippii! So, here's the ninth chapter.

Thank you for the reviews :) they made me very happy

9.

"We're going after them!" Peter snapped. "The injured will be left behind to the care of the dryads. I want the best trackers to the front! They will not get away from this!"

The three colonels saluted and hurried to carry out the orders as fast as possible. King Peter was not in a good mood.

Peter collapsed into his chair and covered his face with his hands. How could he let this happen? He always looked after Edmund like a hawk, why did it have to be the one time when he was slightly distracted? They had struck the telmarines back as Edmund had predicted they would. Rarely optimistic of him but now... the telmarines had captured Edmund.

…

A week ago they had, or rather Edmund had, gotten a word, that the last group of telnorines were coming through their lands before the autumn would fall completely and they wouldn't be able to travel anymore. It was a group with soldiers mostly and the famous lord Sisrlan was with them. Unfortunately they were being pursued by telmarines so after a great deal of deliberating (meaning arguing) Edmund had persuaded Peter to lend their help to them as the telmarines would most certainly follow the telnorines through Narnia and that could be considered as an act of war. Peter had eventually agreed to give their help in that case if the telmarines breached their border. Edmund had been satisfied in that solution so they had started to prepare to move their army to the journey to Western March near the border. Lucy had been determined to come with them and as they well knew, there was no turning her head when she had decided something. Susan had been quite unhappy about it, the Autumn celebration was coming up in a few weeks and she really didn't want them to start any kind of a war right before it. Peter and Edmund had tried to convince her that there weren't going to be any war coming, just getting the telnorines to safety and then they could come back home. Very simple, it was very unlikely that anything could go wrong, so she could continue her preparations to make a party as wonderful as the Midsummer Ball month before. She had glared at them amusedly at that and told them to go and make plans. And of course, being good brothers and all, they had complied.

In the northern part of Western March there was a passage through the mountain range that marked the beginning of the Western Wild that the telnorines used. As before, the telnorines had taken that route to Narnia. When Peter, Edmund and Lucy had arrived they met the telnorines stuck in the small valley between the mountain range and the hills where Peter and Edmund had positioned their army.

"They're in a tough spot, Peter", Edmund said.

"I know, Ed", Peter answered. He looked thoughtfully at the fighting parties.

"I think we should offer them some cover fire, Pete, so that they can move", Edmund suggested.

Peter nodded. "Agreed. Perhaps you could send one of your winged friends to suggest them to move behind that hill over there so that the healers can start their work with them."

Peter pointed at the hill on their right side where the healers and the archers lead by Lucy were waiting. Edmund nodded and called a Hawk to him. He explained to him what they wished him to do while Peter signaled to the archers to get ready. After the Hawk flew off, Edmund called another bird, an Eagle this time, so that Peter could give her the letter they had composed to be given to the telmarines. It wasn't very long or complicated, it warned quite simply the telmarines to not to cross their border as it would be taken as an offensive gesture and would be responded as such.

Edmund doubted they would even read the letter.

"Yensi will signal us when the telnorines are going to move", he said to Peter meaning the Hawk he had just sent to their new friends. The Eagle Icra flew to him and landed on Edmunds shoulder. Peter nodded and they focused their gaze on the group of telnorines. They waited until Yensi rose up to the sky and cried the signal. At the same moment the telnorines turned and started to retreat to the hill on their right side.

"Archers!" Peter yelled raising his sword up towards the sky and swinging it down. "Fire!"

The telmarines were forced to stop their advancing and take cover when a storm of arrows rained upon them. The narnian archers continued to shoot until the telnorines were at the hill top and over it. Edmund commanded them to stop and sent Icra on her way with a scroll tied to her leg. They had decided that Icra would play as a dumb animal until she had found out what they were planning to do. If they were going to do as Edmund expected them to do, meaning attack, Icra would rise up into the air and let out a hunting scream. If they would leave, she would come and fly back to them silently.

Peter was gazing to the right, towards the hill where there was two riders coming towards them when Edmund turned back to his brother. He raised his eyebrows.

"Lord Sisrlan I presume", Edmund muttered to Peter who nodded.

When the riders were close enough, they were able to see them more clearly. The first man was judging by the expensive looking, if a little worn, clothing and armory lord Sisrlan. It was hard to tell when one was sitting on a horse, but the man looked quite tall, hand a long black hair that was tied behind his neck. He was obviously a talented horseman and by looking at his face there could be seen a determined frown between his brows. The second man was lieutenant Martinez to Edmunds great surprise until he remembered that the man had traveled back to Telmar a few months ago.

Edmund moved his gaze back to the sky as the riders came closer. Hopefully the men didn't have anything too pressing to discuss with them as they were on a bit of a schedule here. Peter watched them as they stopped next to him and Edmund and nodded to them.

"Fair day, lord Sisrlan", he said.

The lord nodded. "Likewise, Your Majesty, and thank you. Your timing was quite brilliant."

Edmund watched the telmarines as Icra rose up and up.

And let out a hunting scream.

Peter and Edmund glanced at each other quickly. "Ed-", Peter started.

"The left flank, yes I know."

Edmund nodded to lieutenant Martinez and to the lord, turned Phillip and headed to the left hill.

Peter rolled his eyes. "If you get yourself killed, Edmund, I swear I'll kill you", he yelled after him. His answer was a wave of a hand as Edmund whistled loudly and ordered the soldiers with him.

"Are you certain, lord Sisrlan, that you have strength enough to fight? You must be exhausted", Peter asked.

"We can manage, Your Majesty. I do not know if there is any help of us, but you have helped us. I can start repaying by fighting with you", the lord answered.

Peter nodded and turned to look at the small valley. The telmarines were advancing again. Few meters and they would be between Lucy's archers and Edmund and Peter could give the order. Peter raised his sword again and waited until half of them had crossed their line before swinging it down.

"Fire!"

The archers started shooting their deadly rain and Edmund led the left flank down by the hillside swords bared. Peter watched as the telmarines and Edmunds troops collided together and Lucy and the archers appeared behind the right hill to get a better aim now that there was no need to hide anymore.

Peter spurred his Unicorn friend Kirina on and yelled the attack order. Rest of their troops followed him as well as lord Sisrlan and lieutenant Martinez and that was the last thing he had time to think clearly for a while. The next moments were filled with fighting men and Animals and creatures and Peter was unable think anything else but his own survival and about pushing the telmarines back. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of Edmund fighting near the left side of the battle field kn the front line with Therren and Shalang at his side. His own guards, two Lions Trakha and Sterl, were whirling around him and underneath Kirina creating destruction amongst the telmarines. After a while he started feeling that they were pushing the enemy back towards the passage. The speed was increasing by the minute and Peter realized that the telmarines had given the retreat order. He smiled victoriously and relieved. The battle would be over faster than he had hoped.

Peter glanced quickly around him to find Edmund and found him standing up from next to a body and holding an arrow in his hand. Apparently he and Phillip had been separated from each other. Peter turned to fight off a few telmarines and glanced back to find Edmund in trouble. Everything seemed to freeze around him as he watched an officer looking man with three other soldiers to fight a dazed looking Edmund down and knocking him out.

"ED!" he yelled. "Kirina, to Edmund!"

"Yes, Sire!" the Unicorn answered and galloped towards the men.

However, when he was nearly upon the men, there was suddenly a sharp pain in his left shoulder and an arrow sticking out from his armor. The next thing he knew, he had been struck down from Kirina's back and he was surrounded by three men.

The men never knew what hit them.

After he had handled them he ran as quickly as he could to the spot where he had last seen Edmund. Only to find, that he was no longer there. He looked towards the telmarines and saw them retreating quickly through the passage way. And Edmunds unconscious form hanging on the back of one of the horses.

"No! NO!" he screamed furious and kicked the ground.

Then he stood there panting until Lucy raced to him looking frantic.

"Peter! Peter, where's Edmund?" she demanded gripping his arm tightly.

"They took him", Peter managed to choke out.

"What?" Lucy looked uncertain.

"The telmarines took him", Peter said.

"What!"

…

When Edmund woke up, it was to find that he had a massive headache, he was lying in a very uncomfortable position with his hands and feet tied and that he was really thirsty. But before he could do anything about them, he needed to find out where he was. Judging by the fact that he was tied up, he presumed that he had somehow been captured by the telmarines. Now, what was the last thing he remembered clearly?

The arrow!

He had been fighting when someone had come behind him. He hadn't noticed the soldier until an arrow had flashed past him and hit the soldier straight to the chest. When he had had time, he had glanced at the arrow quickly and frozen in place. It had been Winter's arrow. Winter had been there, in the battlefield.

It had been feathered with strange looking feathers that Winter's arrows had had. He had told him that they were from an exotic bird from south. Unfortunately he had been distracted a moment too long and someone had knocked him in the head. After that everything was a bit blurry.

Edmund decided to try and open his eyes, carefully. As he opened them, he was relieved to find that his head didn't grow angry from it, although it might have been because he was somewhere dark. He turned his head and inspected his surroundings carefully. It seemed that he was in a tent. Alone even. There were some guards outside apparently, they were arguing about something.

So far, so good.

Then he needed to check if he was injured and because nothing actually hurt, he didn't think that he had any serious injuries. Some scrapes and bruises probably. Edmund moved until he was lying at his side and started feeling his wrists. He smiled in triumph when he felt his bracers still in his wrists. He wriggled his hands and picked a tiny blade from inside the leather. After he had managed to position the blade properly he started to cut his ropes.

He had gotten the blades after he had been captured for the first time from a dwarf smith. He rather liked it when he had back up plans and having little blades with him in case he ever got captured was a very good back up plan for him. He had blades in his bracers and in his boots and because they were so thin and small and pushed inside the leather, they were very rarely noticed.

He felt the rope giving out and started to squirm to get his hands free. Next he freed his legs and sat in a comfortable position. The pins and needles were going to hurt, he knew as he gritted his teeth when the first tingling started in his hands.

When the pins and needles passed, Edmund moved to the back of the tent and used the blade to make small holes for him to look through. It was night and the Moon shone brightly giving him a better view on the camp. It was very quiet, most of the soldiers being in sleep, but there were most certainly guards at the edge of the camp. It would have been easier and safer to leave had he known where the men were, but it couldn't be helped. He knew how to walk soundlessly thanks to Therren and Shalang teaching it to him. His prison tent wasn't too far away from the edge of the camp, he could sneak out hiding in the shadows of the other tents.

Edmund glanced behind him and heard the two guards still arguing. Carefully and silently he turned back and started to cut the fabric. The blades size made the cutting difficult, but thank Aslan it was sharp. Otherwise he would be here until sunrise. He managed to make a hole and stuck his head out of it carefully. The camp seemed as empty as before. It was too good to be true, he would probably be caught. But he had to try.

And so he started his quiet journey towards the bushes at the edge of the camp. He silently slipped through shadows and past the tents. If he were lucky, the arguing guards wouldn't notice his absence until they switched places with others. And that was hopefully a very long time.

Upon reaching the bushes he got down on his knees and started to crawl through the bushes towards a small forest. If he could get there, he would be able to hide better. But as he reached the first trees, he heard the telmarine camp waking up and yelling that the prisoner had gotten away.

"Darn", he mumbled as he sped up and stood. He heard a yell from somewhere in his right and cursed again. Someone had spotted him. He ran through the trees until he reached the other side of the forest and had to stop quickly. As the forest ended so did the ground. Edmund looked his surroundings trying to find a hiding place. The cliff was too high and too steep so he couldn't climb down. His eyes stopped at a formation of bushes and rocks at the edge of the cliff. Edmund headed towards it and hid behind the formation and between the edge and the bushes.

Edmund tried to even his breath and listened as the soldiers came to the cliff started to search for him.

"Come on, he cannot be far", one of the told the others. "There's no way out from this cliff."

_Oh, great,_ Edmund thought, now he had to return a little bit if he wanted to get out of here. Suddenly Edmund felt something give up under him. He froze as he felt the earth starting to move.

"Shit."

In the next moment he found himself hanging from the bushes above the air and a couple of telmarine soldiers staring down at him.

He attempted a cheerful smile. "Well, you didn't expect me to not to run, did you?"


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I must be sick or something. Three chapters in a week?

Here you go. I hope this as good as the last chapter :)

10.

Edmund woke up with a jerk that rattled his chains. He tried to breathe deeply to calm himself and his trembling limbs. By Aslan, he hated the nightmares, especially _that one_. And being in a prison cell didn't help matters at all. True, it was different from the Witches dungeons but no matter where the cell was, the same feeling of desperation, fear and hate resided in every one of them. And it always brought the Witch back into his mind.

He shifted slightly and hissed in pain. Now his injuries were a bit too serious for him to try escape, at least alone. He had already tried to leave twice after they had arrived to the telmarine city and inflicted some serious damage to the castle he was being held at and to himself thanks to his continuous escaping. Thankfully the telmarines were on a beating line still although it probably wouldn't be long until they'd take the nastier means in use. He had bruising all over his body, the smaller scrapes had grown in numbers and his ankle and shoulder were sprained and some of his ribs were possibly broken. Also the telmarines had eventually taken his clothes leaving him only in his pants, apparently they thought he had some secret pockets or something in them. Not quite right but close.

Now that he was unable to run, he just had to wait for Peter who would rush to get him out of here as surely as the Sun rose every morning. The telmarines were in for a nasty surprise.

If he had counted correctly he had been here, in the cell for about five days in which time his capturers had managed to torture him very thoroughly so it was no wonder he had trouble moving. Whatever the telmarines were offended about they sure wanted to find out where the telnorines had made their new home. Edmund refused to speak of course, if not just because it was the right thing to do, but also just for the spite of it. He really didn't like these people.

Edmund yawned carefully trying to avoid moving his pained body. Grimacing he tried to adjust his position so that he could try and sleep again when he heard a small sound. He wasn't even sure if it was a sound, but it sounded like something or someone had just slumped softly against something.

Then he heard the silent clinking of the keys.

….

Peter stared at the city of Laprise right at the eastern border of Telmar. According to the scouts the trails led here, Peter only hoped they weren't terribly late. He couldn't even think of the possibility of never seeing Edmund again. He was going to make sure that he would.

The castle was the most obvious place where they would be keeping Edmund, so that's where they needed to get in. The castle stood slightly higher ground than the city and it had two gates, one at south and one at north. The city spread at the southern side of the castle which made Peter to prefer attacking from the north. And what made him favor the northern gate even more was that according to the Griffin scouts, the northern gate was weakened. It was being under repairs due to some damage it had gotten somewhere. Peter had a pretty good idea where it had gotten them if he knew Edmund at all.

Peter fingered his sword as he tried to come up with a decent plan of action.

He had already decided that they would start by dropping rocks in to the castle and most importantly to the gate and to the guard towers by the Griffins. Then the archers would shoot a few rounds of fire arrows and chaos would ensue. Judging by the extremely dry earth there hadn't been any rain for awhile so the fire would most likely spread quickly giving most of the soldiers a lot of work to do. Then they could charge in, find Edmund as quickly as possible and get out.

Peter wished it would be as simple as it sounded.

Peter turned and gestured for the two colonels, a Faun Coid and a Centaur Meya and Lucy to come to him. When they were next to him he told them the plan and waited for the comments. They made lot of improving suggestions and by the time sun had reached its peak they had a proper battle plan. Lucy had insisted on coming in with them, but Peter had managed to get her to promise that she would stay with the archers. She had glared at him badly but agreed eventually. Peter glanced at the city for the last time before hurrying Kirina up to reach the rest of their army.

They would attack at sunset.

…

Edmund stiffened as he heard the soft steps and the clinking of the keys approaching his cell. _Now already_, he thought slightly nervous. He thought there would have been a little more time before they would come to get him again. The sound of the footsteps came nearer and Edmund furrowed his brows as he saw the silhouette of the man coming into his view. There was something strange about him.

The man looked quickly around him and inspected the other cells first and upon reaching his, stopped in front of it. He started trying the keys into the lock one by one and Edmund tried to see him, but in the darkness of the cell was still unable to decide if this one was one of the telmarines who tortured him or someone else. Edmund heard the telltale sound of a key turning in a lock. The man opened the door that creaked loudly and winced visibly at the sound. He stood quietly at the door for a few minutes as if listening if anyone had heard the door. Edmund was starting to lose his patience, he wanted to see, who the guy was. The man finally started to move again and walked to Edmund, whose eyes widened as he saw who he was.

"Winter?"

The nomad smiled carefully as he got down to his knees and started fiddling with his chains.

"Hi."

"What-", Edmund started but was cut short when Winter put his fingers on his lips.

"Better if we don't talk in here", he said. "Wait a little. Are you hurt?"

Edmund nodded. "Ankle and shoulder and probably some ribs."

Winter nodded, opened the chains and moved then to pick Edmund up. Edmund looked at Winter scandalized. His answer was a slight grin and a shrug.

Winter walked quickly to the door and looked at the surroundings again before moving to walk through the dark corridor, up the stairs and continued along a another corridor until he reached a heavy wooden door which he asked Edmund to open so that he could step through it. Edmund complied and opened the door. Winter stepped inside and they found themselves inside a wine cellar. They looked around and Winter walked to a bench near the door and put Edmund down. Then he moved to close the door and returned to Edmund.

"Which ones were hurt?" Winter asked as he dug through his rucksack.

Edmund lifted his right foot and pointed at his right shoulder. He didn't dare to speak yet. What if he was just dreaming, or hallucinating? Pain soared through him as Winter put his right arm into a sling. _Nope, I'm awake_.

When he finally got his wits back, he saw that Winter had moved to wrap his ankle into bandages. When he no longer could stand sitting silently and wondering why Winter had come or why he had left, he leaned forward and touched Winter hands that were working on his foot. The hands stilled and Winter looked up at Edmund.

Edmund bit his lip and searched for words. "Why- why did you-"

Edmund gritted his teeth frustrated. He couldn't decide which question he wanted to ask first. Why did he left or why did he came.

"Edmund?" Winter asked tentatively.

Edmund sighed. "Why are you here?"

Winter furrowed his brows in confusion. "You needed help."

"Okay", Edmund nodded and gathered his courage. "Then why did you- why did you left." Edmund cursed slightly in his mind as he heard his voice giving out at the end.

Winter sat back and lowered his eyes to his hands that he had folded in his lap.

"Oh", he stammered and stared down. "I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

Winter fell silent and fiddled with his fingers. Edmund looked at him confused. He really didn't understand. Edmund touched his hands again.

"Then why did you?" Edmund whispered.

"I-", Winter's voice was trembling as he raised his head and looked at Edmund. "I was scared."

"Of what?" Edmund asked.

"You, me, us… I- You remember when I told you about the Light One's curse?" Winter said.

Edmund nodded.

"Well, because of it, my people doesn't fall in love very easily, but when we do it's for life and the only time in our lives when we do and when we lose that loved one, we rarely come out of it in a very good condition. So, when I realized that… you were my… the one for me, I got scared. I'm quite young amongst my people still and I don't know anything about it and I was scared that you wouldn't like me or something would happen to you and- and-", Edmund pressed his finger to Winter's lips and he went silent and wrapped his arms around his knees.

"Am I to understand that you…love me?" Edmund asked hopefully.

Winter nodded, biting his lip and looking pretty miserable.

Edmund smiled a little and dragged him up to his knees as best as he could with only one hand and wrapped it around his shoulders.

"A silly nomad", he said fondly and relieved and moved to kiss him deeply and passionately. It was even better than the last time and it felt like it went on for ages. Not that Edmund minded. When they parted for breath Edmund smiled.

"I love you too", he whispered.

Winter's face lit up like a sun as he watched the happiest smile he'd seen spread to his face. He laughed brightly as he pulled Edmund into a tight hug and nuzzled his neck.

"Ouch… Auch… Win- my shoulder", Edmund moaned.

Winter's eyes widened and he untangled himself quickly. "Sorry."

"No problem", Edmund croaked.

Winter gave an apologetic smile and continued to wrap Edmund's ankle in bandages.

"Where did you go by the way?" Edmund asked after the pain had subsided.

"To my mother", Winter answered.

Edmund blinked. "Your mother?"

Winter nodded. "She always has some sort of advice to give."

"What did she said to you?" Edmund asked smiling hesitantly.

"She told me to stop being an idiot."

Edmund was about answer when the castle shook and they heard huge crack from somewhere above them. Edmund crunched his brows and looked up to the roof. What was that about? He turned to look at Winter quizzically.

"I suppose that was your brother and sister's doing", he chuckled slightly. "I passed them on my way here. He looked quite pissed off then."

Edmund smiled. He knew Peter would come! The cracking sounds came most likely from the Griffins who were dropping rocks to the castle. Edmund started to try and stand up with little success. Winter caught him as he was about to fall.

"Not so fast, Edmund", he said and helped him stand up.

"Sorry", Edmund mumbled.

Winter chuckled and Edmund felt himself blushing slightly. Blushing? Him? No, impossible. He didn't blush, no way. He was a king, kings didn't blush. And yet here he was, blushing like a little girl when Winter wrapped his left hand over his shoulder and smiled at him. Aslan, this was embarrassing.

They headed to the door and after opening it slightly, peeked through the crack to see if anyone had come to the deserted corridor. It was still empty so they stepped out from the wine cellar and headed to the next stairs. At the beginning of the stairs however, Winter stopped. He glanced around them and upon noticing an alcove, led Edmund there to sit. Whoever would make alcoves into a cellar floor was beyond him, Edmund thought as he sat down.

"I just realized that you could use something to wear probably, not that I particularly mind" Winter said. "Wait here."

Before Edmund could answer he had disappeared to the stairs heading down to the dungeons. He was probably going to snag some of the guard's clothes, Edmund thought, and what did he mean he didn't particularly mind? Edmund shook his head. They should probably head to the northern gate when he had some clothes on. If he knew his brother at all and if his memory didn't fail him, Peter would attack from the north due to the city that was at south.

Winter appeared from the stairs with a bundle of clothes in his arms. They dressed Edmund quickly in a shirt and a tunic and in boots. Putting the boot into his right leg was pure pain but they got over it. When he was done, Winter wrapped his left arm over his shoulders again and they started to climb up the stairs.

"Okay, where should we go", Winter asked as they slowly climbed the stairs.

"To the northern gate", Edmund answered. "Peter will be there. The city _is_ in the south isn't it?"

Winter nodded.

"Peter doesn't want a city full of civilians between him and the castle and the fact that I broke their gate a few days ago makes it even better place to get through", Edmund explained.

Winter smiled amused. "Yes, I noticed the gate. If what I heard is any inclination, they are quite angry at you."

Edmund grinned. "I do my best."

Winter laughed and pulled them into another alcove when they reached the top of the stairs. He checked if the corridor was empty and led them quietly and moving near the wall forward.

"We are at the western side of the castle, I believe it is best if we go through the servants rooms", Winter said.

Edmund nodded in agreement. They moved slowly but steadily towards the source of all the racket Peter had managed create, hiding from the panicked servants every now and then. Eventually they made it to one of the doors that led to a courtyard in front of the gate. The yard was in total chaos, men and creatures fighting, other men trying to put out the fires that burned in a hot flame everywhere around the yard and commanding officers trying to bark orders that no one seemed to hear.

Edmund searched around the yard until he spotted Peter in the middle of it all yelling his own orders to their people. But Peter was a little bit far for them to walk up to him especially when he was in this condition. They would be quite defenseless if they'd go there now. Edmund continued to search and smiled when he spotted colonel Meya nearby. He whistled loudly and as the Centaur colonel glanced at their way, Edmund waved his left arm to signal the colonel to come to their way.

"What are you doing?" Winter asked.

"Getting us a lift, if colonel Meya agrees to carry us out of here", Edmund answered.

Winter nodded and watched the Centaur gallop closer.

"Your Majesty!" she exclaimed as she stopped next to them. "You are alright."

Edmund smiled. "Pretty much, yes. Would you mind terribly giving us a ride away from here would you?"

Colonel Meya smiled. "No, I wouldn't. Hop on and I shall take you to your brother."

"Thank you", Edmund said and Winter detached himself from Edmund to climb up to colonel's back. Up there he reached down and with the help of the good colonel managed to pull Edmund up to sit in front of him. The colonel checked that they were secure in her back and headed then to Peter.

"High King Peter!" She said as she stopped next to him. "Your Majesty, I found your brother."

Peter spun around to look at them. At the sight of Edmund, he smiled widely and leaned in for a crushing hug. _Oh, crap_, Edmund thought again as Peter squeezed him.

"Ouch… Pete …shoulder", Edmund tried to say.

"Oh, sorry", Peter apologized and let him go.

"That's okay", Edmund croaked once again.

Winter suffocated a laugh and Edmund glared at him. Peter turned to order the retreat after telling colonel Meya to take them out of the castle. Edmund sighed relieved. He really wanted to get out of here. And hopefully not hear about telmarines for a while. More people to give him nasty reminders. It wasn't like he had particularly liked the telmarines before, they were rough, brutal, warlike and from the few meetings he'd had with them he had deducted that they were also terribly conservative. And those telmarines he had met had been obsequious, scheming and had done everything for their own gain. They ruled with fear, taxes and iron hand. In short Edmund really didn't like them and he was glad to be with his own people.

And Winter had come back. He couldn't even describe how happy he was that he hadn't left him. Thank Aslan. And hopefully they would have lots of happy times together and he really hoped that Peter and Susan would like him. Lucy would no doubt adopt him in the family in a flash. He just knew that Lucy and Winter would become friends. Of Peter and Susan he wasn't so sure, Peter had his over protective brother thing that would probably come between them and Susan… he honestly didn't know.

He sighed happily. Perhaps he could just this once be an optimistic and think that everything would go perfectly.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Oh, gods. It's done, I can't believe it…

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I couldn't have done this without you.

So, here's the last chapter. I'm not sure if I'm quite happy with it. But, I hope you'll like it :)

11.

Epilogue

"Susan! Queen Susan!"

Susan turned around and saw Shrinel running towards her with a happy smile in his face.

"What is it, Shrinel?" she asked when the dryad stopped in front of her.

He was almost bouncing with excitement. "Terence came a few minutes ago, he says that Peter and Lucy are on their way with Edmund with them. They're coming home!"

"Oh thank Aslan! They're not hurt or anything are they?" Susan said.

Shrinel shook his head. "Not according to Terence."

"That's good. Now, perhaps we get a calm winter now that this telmarine/telnorine business is out of the way", Susan hoped.

Shrinel sighed. "Pity they missed the Autumn party."

Susan's eyes brightened. "Well, in that case why don't we make them a welcome home party!"

Shrinel smiled along with Susan.

"That's perfect, Queen Susan", Shrinel said and turned to rush along the corridor. "I'll go and tell the cook."

Susan smiled. "Thank you, Shrinel. I'll go find a suitable place."

They were going to be so surprised, Susan thought happily.

….

Edmund sighed happily as he caught the sight of Cair Paravel. They were home. After a battle, captivity and a tiresome journey back he was ready collapse into his bed. With Winter hopefully. Edmund smiled softly as he watched the nomad talking animatedly with Lucy. As he had predicted, Lucy had adopted Winter instantly and they were quickly becoming good friends. Peter on the other and was not so quick to accept him. Edmund honestly couldn't understand what was the problem, yes, Winter had left him and made him miserable, but he had come back with the intention of not abandoning him again and he had saved Edmund from that bloody dungeon. Of course it could be that he was being a bit biased but in his eyes the good deeds outweighed the bad ones. Apparently Peter needed more convincing. Therren, Shalang and Phillip were all three also happy that Winter had retuned and the twins kept giving him knowing glances. It made him wonder what they knew that he didn't.

He had also gotten a lecture of a lifetime from the Snow Leopards and Phillip had looked at him the way he did when Edmund had gone and done something stupid. And it probably had been stupid of him to be so distracted only because of an arrow, but fortunately they sort of understood and didn't give him too hard time for it.

Edmund smiled when he saw Winter heading his way. When he was next to him and Phillip Edmund stretched his right arm and as Winter grabbed it, Edmund pulled him up and behind him.

"Your sister's cordial is a small miracle", Winter said nodding at his arm after he had settled comfortably behind Edmund.

"Yeah, I know", Edmund answered.

Edmund looked forward and smiled as they reached the gates of Cair Paravel. Winter looked around him interested and admiring.

"You have a really beautiful castle to live", he commented.

Edmund furrowed his brows. "You haven't seen it before?" he asked.

Winter shook his head.

"But you said you'd been in Narnia before?"

Winter smiled. "I was sixteen at the time. It hadn't been built yet."

Edmund looked at the castle confused. "Really?"

Winter tilted his head. "You didn't know?"

"No, it was here when came", he answered.

They looked at each other and shrugged, deciding to think about it later. Now they needed to survive from Susan. She had no doubt something planned for them, thinking that they wouldn't know about it. And they would always act surprised sense it made her happy. When they reached the courtyard, Susan stood there waiting with Shrinel and lady Ileysiana.

Edmund heard the delighted laughter of Lucy when she ran to Shrinel's arms and saw how Peter headed straight to lady Ileysiana. He and Winter got down from Phillip's back and Edmund turned towards Susan who was walking quickly to him. Edmund met her in the half way and Susan took him into a tight embrace.

"I was so worried, Ed", she whispered. "Don't ever ever get captured again, you hear me!"

Edmund smiled. "I hear you, sis."

Edmund untangled himself and turned slightly so that Susan could se Winter.

"Su, this is Winter", he introduced. "Winter, this is my older sister Susan."

Winter stepped closer, stretched his hand out and smiled carefully. "Hello."

Susan watched him thoughtfully as she gave him her hand. Winter raised it into his dancer greeting as Edmund had started to call it.

"So, you are the infamous Winter", she said.

"Yes", Winter said looking quite apologetic.

"You do realize that you made Edmund incredibly miserable", Susan glared at him.

Winter nodded still looking apologetic.

"Are you going to do that again?"

"No! I'm going to try my best not to do that", Winter assured Susan looking terrified even of the idea that he would do something like that again.

"Well, in that case", Susan said and hugged Winter.

Edmund stared at Susan suspiciously. "What? That's it. You're okay with that?"

Susan nodded and smiled gently to him. "Yes Edmund. That's it. You've been back for ten minutes and I can see that you are happy with him. As long as you're happy, Edmund."

Edmund smiled and nodded before pulling Winter into a hug. Winter laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Good, now", Susan started, "I want you to go and clean yourselves up before coming to the Green Hall. We made you a little party since you missed the Autumn celebrations."

Edmund looked at Susan. "Do we have to wear something terribly fancy?"

Susan glared at him slightly. "Preferably yes, but it's only a small party so you don't need to worry because of me so much."

Edmund, Lucy and Peter laughed and hugged Susan promising to put some effort in their clothes. Susan smiled happily and shooed them off to go and wash themselves. She seemed to think that they smelled. Winter glanced behind them as Edmund led him towards his rooms.

"Did she include me too in that fancy clothes thing?"

Edmund chuckled. "Probably."

Winter looked at him alarmed. "But I don't want to wear fancy clothes. Can't I come in these?"

"Oh, don't worry", Edmund smiled. "I'm sure we can find something you like and Susan approves from my wardrobe."

"You think?" Winter asked worriedly.

Edmund nodded smiling. "Yes. Want to come and have a bath with me?"

Winter blinked in surprise. "Well, yes."

Edmund grinned at him. "Come on. I have my own bathroom. Pros at being a king."

"Really?" Winter said. "Interesting."

Edmund laughed and took Winter's hand. Suddenly, though he stopped and went silent, his face changing to more serious than moments before.

"Edmund?" Winter asked confused.

Edmund bit his lip. "Do you- When do you suppose the Path starts calling you again?"

Winter's face softened and he lifted his other hand to caress Edmund's face. "I don't know, Edmund", he said. "But you don't need worry. I will always come back to you. I promise."

"You don't forget me out there, right?"

Winter shook his head. "I couldn't forget you, ever."

Edmund stared into his eyes searching for something and upon finding it, smiled. "I'll hold you on to that."

Winter nodded and followed smiling as Edmund led him to his room. Shalang and Therren positioned themselves at each side of the door, ready drive away anyone who'd try to enter.

….

The End

Now, I have a problem: I can't decide what I should start writing next. I have terribly lot of ideas but I've managed to narrow it down to two choices. So I decided to try and make a poll of it. Never done one before so we'll see how it goes. I would be very happy if you would vote :)

So the question is: which story would you like me to start next?

_My Prince Caspian AU_ (I still haven't named it yet)

or

_The Cordial_

There are short descriptions of the stories in my profile and they both are part of my Winter saga.

So, please vote! I'll be keeping the poll up for few weeks.


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